Description
750 to 1,500-word reflection essay. Type the essay using Times New Roman typeface, font size 12, 1” margins, and double-spaced text. The reflection essay must address the writing prompt “Identify and discuss one or two observations or insights you have made and how you will apply them in relation to critical thinking, supporting the command philosophy, and/or influencing the command climate”.
WRITING REFLECTION JOURNAL ENTRIES AND REFLECTION ESSAYS
Table of Contents
What is a reflection journal?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………1
What is reflection and reflective thinking?……………………………………………………………………………………………………..1
What is reflective practice? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….2
What is reflective writing?……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3
What to Write in a Journal Entry…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..3
Student Journal Entry Example …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4
How to Write and Organize a Reflection Essay ………………………………………………………………………………………………5
ECDEP Writing Center Provides Help…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7
Steps of the Writing Process…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7
What is a reflection journal?
Reflection is a personal growth tool to help you, the writer, evaluate your life experiences. A reflection journal is an instrument for practicing critical thinking and writing. One common way to use a journal is to reflect upon experiences you deem profound or that had an impact on your life. A journal can be used to record your thoughts, opinions, ideas, and feelings related to what you have learned or experienced. Writing it all down can give you a new or alternative point of view. Writing in a journal can help you better understand yourself and the world that you live in. Reflection journals can also be a great way to discover creative solutions to difficult problems. The purposes of a reflection journal include:
• Aids in the development of critical thinking abilities.
• Encourages you, the student, to think about your own thinking—self-awareness.
• Helps you reflect on ideas or methods that need improvement.
• Assists you while you synthesize new concepts or understandings.
• Offers a communication pathway (e.g., between course material and yourself, yourself and the instructor).
• Provides a record of your learning observations.
What is reflection and reflective thinking?
Reflection is the fixing of serious thoughts on something or making a careful consideration (“Reflection”). Reflection is:
• Self-awareness – thinking of yourself, your experiences, and your view of the world.
• Self-improvement – learning from experiences and wanting to improve some area of your life.
• Empowerment – putting you in control of making changes and behaving in a different way.
To think and write reflectively you have to:
• Experience something
• Think about what happened
• Learn from the experience
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When thinking reflectively, you should ask yourself, “What did I learn, how did I apply it, or how will I use my new knowledge in the future?” You think reflectively all the time, you probably just do not realize you are doing it. Have you ever missed the bus and then thought, ‘Next time I’ll leave five minutes earlier’? This is an example of you being reflective: you thought about an experience and decided to learn from it to do something different the next time. As a student, or in the workplace, you may be asked to be reflective. By thinking or reflecting on the world around you, your experiences and actions will help you to develop and improve your abilities.
What is reflective practice?
Donald Schön defines reflective practice as the ability to reflect on one’s actions so as to engage in a process of continuous learning (“Reflective Practice”). One use of reflection is to develop a learning cycle or action cycle that leads to improvement or new insights. Southampton Solent University provides a model of reflective practice by David A. Kolb (“Reflective thinking”).
Kolb’s Learning Cycle (1984) has the four elements of reflective practice in a loop, which you can start at any point—though normally you would start with an experience. See figure 1. The four elements include:
• Experience – doing something
• Observations and reflections – reviewing and reflecting on the experience
• Development of ideas – learning from the experience
• Testing ideas in practice – planning and trying out a new idea or action plan
Example of using Kolb’s Learning Cycle
Experience
o You gave a five-minute presentation in class and received a low grade.
Observations and reflections
o Observations: You prepared your presentation at the last minute. You ran several minutes over the five-minute time limit and kept forgetting what you wanted to say.
o Reflections: You reflected on your observations:
Why did I procrastinate completing this assignment?
How did I feel about fumbling in front of my peers?
How did completing this assignment relate to other priorities in my life? Were my priorities correct? Would I change them?
How is this assignment relevant to my role as a leader?
Development of ideas
Figure 1. Kolb’s Learning Cycle.
Adapted from: Southampton Solent University
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o You spoke to your instructor and peers to get advice on presentation preparation techniques. You recorded some ideas on how to prepare differently.
Testing ideas in practice
o You made an action plan for next time. Next time you prepared the presentation with plenty of time to practice. You wrote speaker notes to refer to and practiced delivering your presentation within the time limit.
What is reflective writing?
Reflective writing helps you focus on the significant new insights you gained through an experience like this course. Creating a piece of reflective writing is different from other academic writing as it is more personal and you are writing about your experiences. Reflective writing is a personal account that considers your personal views, is written in first person, contemplates an event or topic, and offers a solution to a problem. Reflective writing may reveal anxieties, errors and weaknesses, as well as strengths and successes. This is fine, as long as you show some understanding of possible causes, and explain how you plan to improve.
Reflective writing is evidence of reflective thinking. In an academic context, reflective thinking usually involves:
• Looking back at something (often an event, but it could also be an idea or object).
• Analyzing the event or idea (thinking in depth and from different perspectives while trying to explain—often with reference to a model or theory from the course or related subject).
• Thinking critically about what the event or idea means for you and your ongoing progress as a learner and/or practicing professional.
What to Write in a Journal Entry
The purpose of writing journal entries is to help students reflect on their understanding of lesson material. While writing a journal entry, students become actively engaged in their own learning which gives them an opportunity to clarify and analyze their thinking. Journaling is active. When students read something, information is merely provided, but when students write something, they supply the information. This allows students to monitor and reinforce their comprehension, and it can lead to personal breakthroughs in learning. A reflection journal entry is not a copy of facts from the lesson material. When writing a journal entry, reflect on the lesson material and your learning experience, then consider the following questions.
• What significant insights or new understandings have I gained?
• What are the connections between my personal experience and the lessons?
• What did I learn? How did I apply it, or how will I use my new knowledge in the future?
• What questions came to mind? What are possible answers to those questions?
• How did my learning experience change my thinking or challenge my preconceived ideas, or biases? How will my learning experience change my actions or emotions going forward?
• How did my self-awareness develop?
Student journal entries should focus on answering the above questions. The journal entry in Figure 2 is only provided as an example and is not intended to be a template to write journal entries. You will use your journal entries to develop reflection essays.
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Student Journal Entry Example
Lesson 1:
This week’s lesson focused on critical thinking. We discussed the intellectual standards and elements of thought. I understand the standards and elements when I view them individually. Reviewing the Critical Thinking interactive multimedia instruction (IMI) and discussing the standards and elements during seminar led me to a significant insight. I now understand that to improve my critical thinking I need to apply the intellectual standards to the elements of thought as I learn to develop my intellectual habits. These habits or traits include intellectual integrity, intellectual fair-mindedness, and intellectual empathy, among others.
During the seminar discussion, I felt more aware of how people were thinking and how I was processing their information. Listening to how the other students formed their responses and even a lack of a response was enlightening. However, one aspect that stuck in my head was the information piece from the elements of thought. Most everyone used personal experiences and some facts to drive the conversation. I noticed how students cited evidence or presented data to support or refute the point of view we discussed. I found myself wanting to have more factual input than just personal experiences. Then I started thinking, how much do I depend on personal experiences compared to facts or data to make choices?
In my unit, we have one SNCO who tries to develop critical thinking in his Marines. Last year, I worked in his duty section. The SNCO held monthly PME classes, which included critical thinking and decision-making. Unfortunately, I did not apply the lessons he provided. With my new understanding of critical thinking, I am ready to become a better thinker and to pass on what I have learned to my Marines. I plan to read the lesson material again and use it to develop those intellectual traits that I have neglected in the past.
I started reading Black Hearts and could not put it down. One insight from my reading relates to the lack of communication. The Commanding Officer (CO) lost his audience by ridiculing his officers in front of the enlisted soldiers, bashing fallen soldiers, and not listening to his troops. The chain of command did not tell their soldiers the purpose of their missions. Even when asking their opinions, the CO is not really looking for their thoughts, only affirmation that his decision is the right one. The platoon leaders did not have opportunities to make decisions, which would hinder their ability to grow as leaders. This topic made me think about whether I was guilty of some of the same actions written about in the book. It caused me to reflect on my own leadership and that of my past leaders. In other words, I was thinking about my thinking. Because of this reading, I plan to provide the purpose of our missions to the Marines if time permits.
Figure 2. Reflection Journal Entry Example
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How to Write and Organize a Reflection Essay
The reflection essay must be linked to the lesson material and must focus on the significant insight or insights you gained through the seminar sessions, lesson readings, interactive multimedia instruction (IMI) reviews, homework assignments, and/or your interactions with peers or the instructor.
A reflection essay is an instrument used to practice critical thinking; it allows the writer to explore the common themes found in their reflection journal entries—comparing, contrasting, expounding upon, and applying those reflections to the future. A reflection essay helps the writer gain additional insight on a particular topic by allowing them to further analyze their own thoughts and personal experiences. The reflection essay must be based on a thesis statement (created by the writer) that argues, states, explains, or details the insights most important to the writer along with a specific explanation as to why those chosen insights are relevant.
There is no single strategy on how to organize your reflective writing. However, one strategy adapted from Glasgow Caledonian University can help with writing a reflection essay.
The reflection essay can be broken down into three parts: description, interpretation and outcome. These are the same as the parts of an essay: introduction, body and conclusion.
• Introduction [Description]: It is normally necessary to select just the most significant parts of the insight or idea on which you are reflecting. If you try to tell the whole story, you are likely to use up your words on description rather than interpretation. Do not just describe—explore and explain. Since there is a range of possible insights, ideas, events or objects to reflect on, there are numerous ways to describe them. The following questions may help: What did I learn or realize? What was the situation (lesson/ the context)? What happened? Who was involved? Where did it take place? What is being examined or studied? Some possible starting phrases:
The most interesting (surprising/ important/ significant/ …) (insight/ theory/ thing …) I read (saw/ heard/ realized/ learned…) is that …
One thing I realize (understand …) now is that …
It is important to note that because this is a reflection essay, and not a journal entry, a thesis statement is necessary. The above starting phrases will help you when developing your thesis statement. Your thesis statement should address one or two particular insights from your reflection journal entries and then give a brief statement explaining why those are the most significant and/or relevant to the corresponding topic (see AC7500RJ). Remember, your thesis statement must take you through the entire essay so make sure that this statement is something you can expound upon for the next couple of paragraphs. Below is an example reflective thesis statement. For more information, see the Reflective Thesis Statement Development available in the ECDEP Writing Center.
During the communication lessons, I learned that rehearsing plays an important part in delivering a successful brief; this was impactful because as a leader I need to use my briefing abilities to educate my subordinates and to influence my seniors’ decisions.
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• Body [Interpretation]: This part is probably the most important. It may be written in two or more paragraphs if you divide your interpretation into different aspects. The interpretation should be an extension of the thesis statement, that either furthers your discussion, argument, and/or explanation of the topic. Here, you should reflect further upon those insights outlined in your thesis statement and expound on your thoughts and ideas from your journal entries. Explain the meaning of the new insight: your understanding, conclusions, or connections to previous learning, etc. You can refer to concepts in the lesson materials or your research into other sources that support your explanation of the insight. The following questions may help: What is most important, interesting, valuable, useful or relevant about the insight, event or idea? How can it be explained, for example, with theory? What can be concluded from this experience and your analysis? How is it similar to and different from others? See figure 3 for some possible starting phrases.
Figure 3. Possible Starting Phrases for Interpretation
Each body [interpretation] paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that alerts the reader to the main idea, insight, or reflection to be discussed. This topic sentence should also clearly link back to the thesis statement. You do not need to discuss every topic covered in class in your body paragraphs; each body paragraph should have one main idea/reflection. The body paragraphs should then end with a transition sentence that wraps up the reflections of one paragraph and links it to the reflections in the next. For more information on paragraph topic and transition sentences, see the Organizing an Essay folder available at the ECDEP Writing Center listed under “Useful Links” in your course.
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• Conclusion [Outcome]: Restate your thesis and explain how your insight(s) or learning will be applied in practice in the future. Use future tense in this paragraph to show transfer of knowledge to the future. The following questions may help: What have I learned from this? How will I apply this insight or learning in the future? What is my action plan? What will I do differently in the same or a similar situation the next time? See figure 4 for some possible starting phrases.
Figure 4. Possible Starting Phrases for Outcome
ECDEP Writing Center Provides Help
The Marine Corps University’s College of Distance Education and Training (CDET) maintains a writing center titled, “ECDEP Writing Center.” The Writing Center is listed under “Useful Links” in the course. Students should review the numerous resources available to improve or sharpen their writing skills. The below documents are useful when writing the reflection essay.
• Reflective Thesis Statement Development: This document will guide students on how to properly develop a reflective thesis statement.
• How to Write the Reflection Essay: Students can use this document as a guide to writing their reflection essays.
• The ECDEP Reflection Essay: This document explains the purpose, rules, and expectations of the ECDEP Reflection Essay.
• The Reflection Essay: This PowerPoint presentation provides a walk-through of writing the Reflection Essay with tips and hints for success.
• The Reflective Topic Sentence: This document provides an example of how to develop a reflective topic sentence from a reflective thesis statement and what it should and should not include.
Steps of the Writing Process
Within the “Writing Issues” folder of the writing center there is a “Steps of the Writing Process” folder that includes “The Writing Process” document, which breaks down the writing process into four steps: prewriting, drafting, revising and editing. The below four steps have been modified to fit the reflection essay writing assignment.
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1. Prewrite
After completing each lesson, write a reflection journal entry that describes or records your impressions and the significant new insights you gained through lesson readings, interactive multimedia instruction (IMI) reviews, homework assignments, or interactions with peers and/or the instructor. This should be done immediately after lesson completion since you may forget important details the longer you wait.
Approach prewriting with an open mind. Start by picking topics, and then free write, brainstorm, or map your ideas. Do not filter your thoughts at this point; get out all your initial ideas about the potential topic. Do not worry about spelling, organization, or proper sentence/paragraph structure; you will work on these later.
After completing all lessons for a particular subject or functional area, review all of your reflection journal entries for the respective lessons and select the insight or insights that you want to write a reflection essay on.
• Identify an insight (an interesting or illuminating new thing you learned) from readings, IMIs, homework assignments, interactions with peers or the instructor, etc.
• Evaluate your gains in understanding and focus on something that changed your way of thinking (or that is important to you).
• Think about what the significance of this new insight might be for your learning and future practice. Also, think about a plan on how you will use this insight in the future.
2. Draft
After you have reviewed your reflection journal entries and have chosen an insight to write about, consider conducting research to expand your material. Take notes while you research to record the source of the material. Search the lesson materials for information that supports the conclusions you make in your journal entry. If you choose to support your ideas with evidence from the lesson materials, scholarly articles or other outside material, follow the rules for citations below:
For information on brainstorming, refer to the Big Dog & Little Dog’s Performance Juxtaposition web site’s article: What is Brainstorming? For information on mapping ideas, refer to the mindmapping.com web site’s article: What is Mind Mapping?
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For more information on the ECDEP in-text citation format, see the Writing Center—Writing Guides—“The ECDEP Essay” document.
After conducting research, outline your topic and main ideas. You do not have to use a traditional outline, but it is important to group similar information in some form to create structure to your ideas. See “How to Organize a Reflection Essay” below for a suggested strategy for writing a reflection essay.
Use your reflection journal entries, brainstorming results, outline, and any research you conduct to write your first draft. Write complete sentences and paragraphs to create a working document. Write the body paragraphs containing one main idea that relates to your thesis stated in a topic sentence. Other sentences explain and support the topic sentence with evidence from research or personal examples. Show a link to theory if it applies.
Sometimes, it may be necessary to write several drafts to organize your thoughts. The result of drafting should be a working draft you can revise and rewrite.
3. Revise
Develop your writing by going over it several times. Remember that rewriting is a vital part of revising. Check that your reflection is specific and focused on your insight(s). Ensure your main ideas are relevant to your insight(s) and are linked to the lesson material.
One of the keys to a good revision is rest. Let your writing sit for a while before you get back to it. Waiting for a few hours should give you a fresh look at your writing. During this step seek and take into consideration feedback from others. Expect to write a number of drafts. Save all of your drafts, so you can go back to older drafts if you need to. At the end of this step, you should have a final draft.
4. Edit
This is the final step where you polish your final draft. Begin by proofreading and editing, checking spelling and grammar constructions, and reading for sentence cohesion and fluidity. Also, check for style and tone, so you are properly addressing the reader.
To cite research material—both from the course materials and from outside sources—use the following ECDEP in-text citation format: (author’s name, title of work, page number). Use this format in the text of your essay: immediately after direct quotes, summaries, or paraphrases. If not all of this information is available, give as much as possible. You may also lead into a quote, summary, or paraphrase by mentioning the author or title. The key point here is to give the author/source credit and to show where your research came from. Below are three examples of acceptable in-text citations when using material to support your position or claim:
• In the opening line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” the author illustrates the state of affairs after the French Revolution (Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, pg.1).
• Kurtz’s final words in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, “The horror! The horror!”(pg.180) intend to convey the brutality of war.
• The process of writing an essay can be complicated (AC7640SUPA, pg. 1).
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One way to find errors is to read your reflective writing out loud—either to yourself or a group (peers, family members, etc.). One writing trick is to read it in front of a mirror. Read it from start to finish noting the places where you stumble. Most of the time, there is an obvious, or underlying, mistake in the language where you stop reading. Slow the pace down so that you can “hear” the language. Try to pick up on small words that might be omitted: and, at, of, on.
Before submitting your reflection essay, run a final spell-check and do a last reading—line-by-line—to catch any remaining mistakes.
This reading was adapted from information provided by Glasgow Caledonian University and Southampton Solent University under a Creative Commons license.
References:
Making Good Instructors Great: Instructional Tactics and Assessment Techniques Handbook. Marine Corps Training and Education Command, 2012.
“Reflection”. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. Accessed 17 Apr. 2017. www.dictionary.com/browse/reflection.
“Reflective practice.” Wikipedia, 7 Mar. 2017.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practice
This text is released under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license.
“Reflective writing.” Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), Accessed 17 Apr. 2017. www.gcu.ac.uk/library/smile/writingandnumeracy/reflectivewriting/
This work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
“Reflective thinking and writing.” Southampton Solent University, Accessed 17 Apr. 2017.
learn.solent.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=2732&chapterid=1110
This work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Additional Readings
• “What is Brainstorming?” Big Dog & Little Dog’s Performance Juxtaposition: www.nwlink.com/~donclark/perform/brainstorm.html (Accessed 24 Aug. 2017).
• “What is Mind Mapping?” Mindmapping.com: www.mindmapping.com (Accessed 24 Aug. 2017).
The Steps of the Writing Process
• Prewriting: Write unrestrictedly by free writing or brainstorming ideas.
• Drafting: Begin your research, create an outline, and write the first draft.
• Revising: Get feedback, fill in gaps, and reread and rewrite to hone your final draft.
• Editing: Read out loud and line-by-line to check for errors; also run spell-check.