Reflective writing

Sometimes when writing for academic purposes, you may be asked to write a reflection. In practices such as nursing, this is a vital path of both your student life and your working life to go towards a portfolio, however it is not exclusive to just nursing. The most effective way to write reflectively is to follow a reflective cycle. The one we will focus on is Gibbs’  (1988) reflective cycle.

The parts of the cycle are as follows:
  • Description: what happened?
  • Feelings: what were you thinking and feeling?
  • Evaluation: what was good and bad about the experience?
  • Analysis: what sense can you make of the situation?
  • Conclusion: what else could you have done?
  • Action plan: if the situation arose again what would you do?

There may be variations of the reflective cycle online. The cycle goes in a full circle, so once you have written about a topic within each heading, you can start the cycle again reflecting on another topic.

Description: what happened?

We will look at each heading separately. To start with will be ‘description’. In this part, start by writing a full account of what happened during the event upon which you are reflecting. You must be specific, only writing about relevant details in a concise manner. Ensure this section focuses only on describing the event in great detail, rather than writing analytically.

Feelings: what were you thinking and feeling?

Next we will look at ‘feelings’. During this part, think about how you reacted to the situation, how it made you feel at the time, and what you were thinking during the event. This part is also written in a descriptive manner, not analytical.

Evaluation: what was good and bad about the experience?

The next heading to look at is ‘evaluation’. In this section, focus on the positives and negatives of the event, as well as whether you think it went well or badly, plus mention how the experience ended and if it had reached a resolution. This part should not be written as an analysis, but as more of a judgement on the event.

Analysis: what sense can you make of the situation?

Now we will look at ‘analysis’. In this part, take the time to determine what it was that made the bad parts go wrong, and what impact you think this had on the experience overall. Now do this with the good parts, why you think they went well, and what impact you think this had on the experience as a whole? Think about what you could have done to avoid the negative consequences, or how you could have made a more positive impact. Now write this down in an analytical way, ensuring you are not just writing descriptively. Make sure you are questioning what happened and explain what the causes and consequences of the experience led to.

Conclusion: what else could you have done?

The next part to look at is ‘conclusion’. In this section, you can look at what you should or could have done differently, why it was that you didn’t do that in the first place, as well as anything you learnt from this experience. Write in good detail to sum up the things the experience taught you.

Action plan: if the situation arose again what would you do?

The final part to look at is ‘action plan’. In this section, write about what you could do to be better prepared if this experience were to occur again, and how you aim to do this. This part should not be analytical, but should state a plan of action for improvement.

References

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic.