Reflective Writing at NTI: A guide to developing a reflective writing practice and structuring reflective assessments

From Reflecting to Writing Reflectively

Throughout the day, you must make decisions and act according to your values and principles. Before making a decision or taking action, you often spend time – be it a minute or a couple of months – pondering what would be the best decision or course of action. Often too, you also spend some time considering the outcome of your decisions and actions, which might result in you adjusting them if you find that they are not effective or successful.

This consideration is termed reflecting. Most of us regularly reflect on small or large matters. It may be as simple as choosing a breakfast cereal and rerunning conversations in our heads to bigger matters such as buying a house or migrating to a different country.

Reflective writing arises from this habit. It is where we record our reflective process, revisiting and modifying serveral times what we have written, to strengthen our ability to make decisions and act in ways that align with our values and beliefs. As such, reflective writing represents the tangible embodiment of what can otherwise be a fleeting and mostly subconscious process.

In an academic context, reflective writing is framed as an introspective mode of inquiry that requires documenting and revisiting what arises in relation to a situation, experience or source. This mode of inquiry shifts the focus from the outcome or product to the (learning) process. This leads to improved critical thinking skills and increased self-awareness. Reflective writing in an academic context is thus a means to process and draw meaning from the overload of information that reaches us when we study, as well as a means to support emotional regulation and ethical decision making.

Keeping a Reflective Diary

As part of NTI’s contemplative approach to studying, you are encouraged to keep a reflective diary to deepen your learning.

Writing reflectively in your diary involves documenting, expressing and questioning your critical, bodily and emotional response to an experience or the material encountered as part of a subject. It gives you the opportunity to examine your reactions so that you are able to comprehensively explore, evaluate and process information for the purpose of guiding practices and developing informed, nuanced judgement.

A Very Personal Practice

Keeping a reflective diary is something that you do for yourself as part of your own contemplative practice. It will also enable you to develop raw material for your reflective assessments. Be aware that this raw material will ALWAYS need to be re-interpreted, developed and shaped before it becomes a piece of writing that you can submit as an assessment. 

Reflective writing in your diary should not simply describe or summarise what you experienced/felt/read/watched. It is a tool to think critically about your reaction to something, analyse it and learn from it. Keeping a reflective diary is thus key to developing (self-)awareness.

Be Mindful

When writing reflectively, you need to be mindful of your emotional state and of your emotional reaction to what you are writing. Sometimes, the insights gained are so powerful that they are painful or scary. Please do not push yourself further than you are able to go. Remember to be kind to yourself, always.

If you need counselling support, please reach out. As an NTI student, you have access to six confidential counselling sessions from TELUS Health. You can get in touch with Student Services (enquiry@nantien.edu.au) to organise these sessions. Lifeline and Beyond Blue are two other resources that you might want to use.

How to approach writing in your reflective diary?

Keeping a reflective diary is akin to being in a relationship with your own mind. It is about you and you alone, and your ability to understand yourself (that is, your awareness). 

As such, 

• There is no “right” or “wrong” way to write in your reflective diary.

The way you write in your reflective diary can take many forms. For instance, you might write poetry or prose, you might free write or draw, use bullet points of mind maps, write in English or in another language. You might also decide to record yourself or use an app. All of these are valid modes of reflective writing (and there are many more). Often, you will alternate between these different modes depending on what you are documenting. What matters, as usual, is finding what works for you. 

• There is no “right” or “wrong” content. 

There is nothing in particular on which you need to focus. The point is simply to write and document what is arising, whatever that is. Everyone is likely to focus on completely different things when reflecting on a reading or an experience! That is the beauty of keeping a reflective diary: it captures the unicity of your responses to the diversity and plurality of the world. 

Also keep in mind that when writing reflectively in your diary, grammar, syntax and structure do not matter. What matters is capturing what arises as authentically as possible, without overthinking or censoring yourself. Your reflective diary is a safe space. As much as possible, you need to stay open and let your thoughts, sensations, reactions, questions, ideas and concerns flow onto the page. Documenting any doubt, uncertainty and angst around the process might also be part of what you consign in your reflective diary.

As you document what arises, what might help you maintain an attitude of open curiosity is to remember that there is no intended audience for what you are writing in your reflective diary. You are writing for yourself and yourself only. Your aim and focus should solely be in engaging in the reflective process, authentically and fully, without judgment. 

Contemplative Online Learning Model

Keeping a reflective diary will enable you to process what you are learning as well as how you are learning. It is at the core of the pedagogical model that we use at NTI. This model is designed to enable you to develop an embodied understanding of what you are learning, thus giving you the skills and tools to translate knowledge into practice. Learn more about the Contemplative Online Learning Model under Contemplative Resources (NTI login required).

Also keep in mind that no matter how you approach documenting what arises, revisiting the entries in your diary is key. It is what will enable you to go deeper and identify what arises regularly (that is, identify patterns). The time lapse between revisits will also enable you to better identify and process emotions as you get the chance to contemplate the “why?” behind your thoughts and reactions. 

It is by using your reflective diary and revisiting past entries regularly that you will develop raw material that you might then rework and shape to use in your assessments. 

Writing Reflective Assessments

At NTI, you may be asked to complete reflective assessments to demonstrate how you have put what you learnt into practice.

You are no longer writing for yourself!

When working on a reflective assessment, you are writing academically for a reader (generally, your lecturer). This means that you need to follow academic conventions and address the assessment brief. Do not ever submit any part of the raw entries in your reflective diary as an assessment. These entries will ALWAYS need to be combined, structured, developed and polished before they become something that you can submit as an assessment. 

Reflective Writing Style in an Assessment

Developing your voice: Use a personal tone

Reflective writing and by extension reflective assessments are at the heart of first-person inquiry. Such a mode of inquiry draws on personal experiences and is thereby personal: let your voice shine by using first person singular (I, my) when writing about these experiences.

Meeting academic standards and upholding academic integrity

Although reflective assessments are more personal than purely critical assessments, you are still required to follow academic conventions and uphold academic integrity. In particular, you need to be transparent about the sources, tools and evidence that you have used, and how you have used them, to reach your conclusion(s). 

Write ethically

Upholding academic integrity means that you act with honesty, trust, respect, fairness, responsibility and courage. This is essential to ensure the credibility of your work. For further guidance on academic integrity, please refer to our Training Module: Navigating the AI Intersection (NTI login required). 

Structure of a Reflective Assessment

Many models are available to structure reflective assessments. At NTI, we tend to use either Borton’s Model or the DIEP model. These two models share many similarities but might require you to favour a slightly different angle or aspect in your assessments. As such, and as always, pay close attention to the assessment’s details and marking criteria in the Learning and Assessment Guide to determine which framework to use to structure your work.

Borton’s Model

Borton’s Model requires you to answer three questions, generally in relation to a text (reading or source material) or a situation. This is the model that you will commonly be asked to use in ABS, HB and HSW subjects. 

What? Reflection in action

• Describe the situation or text. This is your chance to set the scene: who, what, why, when, where, how. This will enable you to demonstrate your ability to summarise an experience or text as concisely and objectively as possible. To tease out the key points, you might want to ask yourself:
  • What was significant about this text or situation?
  • How did the text or situation make me feel?
  • Were others involved and, if so, in what capacity? 

So What? Reflection on action

• Make sense of the situation or text (that is, contextualise it). This is where you interpet and evaluate the situation or text, discussing what you have learnt from it and addressing your biases. You might want to ask yourself:
  • Why have I acted/reacted the way I did?
  • What new insights have I gained?
  • How does the situation/text connect with my knowledge and/or other situations/texts?

Now What? Reflection for action

• Discuss where your reflection has taken you. This is your opportunity to design an ethical action plan explaining what is next, that is, how will you apply the insights that you have gained from reflecting on the situation/text? You might want to ask yourself:
  • How will I continue learning from the situation/text?
  • What remains to be done so that I can improve/develop? Is there anything that I should explore further (a feeling or a concept), and if so, how?
  • What will I do differently next time? Why?

The DIEP Model

The DIEP model requires you to address four points, generally in relation to a learning experience. This is the model that you will commonly be asked to use in MH subjects. 

Describe

• Describe the learning experience in depth. This is your chance to set the scene: who, what, why, when, where, how. This will enable you to demonstrate your ability to observe experiences as objectively as possible. You might want to ask yourself:
  • What details stood out in relation to my learning experience?
  • How did the learning experience make me feel?
  • Were others involved and, if so, what was their reaction?

Interpret

• Consider the significance of your learning experience in context. This is where you connect your experience with other perspectives (such as readings or peer discussions) to deepen your understanding through critical analysis and inquiry. You might want to ask yourself:
  • How do different perspectives inform or contradict my understanding?
  • How does my learning experience connect with the theory?
  • What insights arise for me through this contextualisation of the experience?

Evaluate

• Assess the impact and effectiveness of your learning, especially in practical settings, by identifying challenges and implications. You might want to ask yourself:
  • What practical implications emerge?
  • What limitations and/or potential challenges have you noticed?

Plan

• Reflect on how to continue refining and apply the learning, that is, plan so that you can continue strengthening the learning and translating it into practice. You might want to ask yourself:
  • What specific steps or actions will you take next to integrate the insights that you have developed?
  • How will you address challenges that might arise?
  • How will you evaluate your progress and ongoing growth?

Subsequent Drafts and Submission

For advice on refining your draft and preparing for submission, visit the First Draft, Subsequent Drafts and Before Submission sections in our Essay guide.

For further guidance on the structure of academic writing, visit our guides on Essay Structure and Paragraph Structure.