Reflection is not a diary
Reflective writing is now common in nursing, education, social work, business and many degree courses with a placement or practical component. Students often misread the task as "write about your feelings," and produce a diary entry. Academic reflection goes further: it uses an experience as raw material for analysis, asking not just what happened and how you felt, but why it mattered, what it revealed, and how it will change what you do next. The personal voice is allowed — encouraged — but it serves a thinking process, not a confession.
Use a reflective model
Models give reflection a backbone so it does not wander. Two are widely used and easy to apply:
| Model | Stages |
|---|---|
| Gibbs' Reflective Cycle | Description → Feelings → Evaluation → Analysis → Conclusion → Action plan |
| "What? So what? Now what?" | What happened → Why it matters → What I will do differently |
The simpler model is perfect for shorter pieces; Gibbs' cycle suits longer, assessed reflections. Whichever you use, the most important stages are the later ones — analysis and action — because that is where reflection becomes academic.
A reflective structure
- Introduction — name the experience and what the reflection will explore.
- Description — briefly, what happened (keep it short; it is context, not the point).
- Analysis — the heart of the essay: why it unfolded as it did, what it revealed about your assumptions or skills, and how it connects to theory or evidence.
- Conclusion & action plan — what you learned and, concretely, what you will do differently.
Weak reflective essays spend most of their words on description ("first this happened, then that"). Strong ones spend most of their words on analysis and learning. As a rough guide, description should be a small fraction of the essay, and analysis the bulk of it.
Balance personal voice with analysis
Reflective essays are usually written in the first person — "I felt," "I realised," "I now understand" — and that is correct: the whole point is your own experience and growth. But the first person is a tool for honesty, not an excuse to abandon rigour. Pair each personal observation with analysis: not "I felt overwhelmed," but "I felt overwhelmed, which in hindsight reflected a gap in my time-management I had not recognised." Feeling plus analysis is the reflective sweet spot.
Link experience to theory
In most academic reflection, you are expected to connect your experience to the concepts, models or evidence from your course — that is what distinguishes a graduate-level reflection from a personal essay. If a placement experience illustrates a communication model you studied, name it and use it as a lens. This is also where citations appear: even reflective writing references the theory it draws on, formatted in your required style.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Writing a diary entry instead of an analytical reflection.
- Spending most of the essay describing events rather than analysing them.
- Reflecting with no model, so the piece lacks structure.
- Failing to link the experience to course theory or evidence.
- Avoiding honesty — pretending nothing went wrong removes the thing worth reflecting on.
Frequently asked questions
Can a reflective essay be written in the first person?
Yes. Reflective essays are normally written in the first person because they recount and analyse your own experience. The key is to pair personal observations with genuine analysis rather than simply narrating events.
What is Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle?
It is a six-stage model for structured reflection: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. It guides you from what happened through to what you will do differently, and is widely used in nursing and education.
How much description should a reflective essay include?
Keep description brief — it is only context. The bulk of the essay should be analysis and learning: why the experience mattered, what it revealed, and what you will change as a result.