
Many students work several jobs, have families, and a variety of classes, which means reflection time can be fragmented or slight. You could also reflect on the difference between your readings for the class and the experience you had-whether the readings need to be modified.
#Reflection paper how to
For instance, if in a physical therapy class you learn how to treat patients with disabilities and then spend the day in a wheelchair and have to reflect on it, you could speculate what it would be like to be there all the time-in other words, give compassion toward others instead of worrying about writing about yourself. If length is an issue, pull back and consider the larger societal issues or an academic issue. Many male students can lose points on this assignment because they don’t write enough. In American culture, men are trained not to reveal their emotions because it is a way of being vulnerable. In that case, write about the issue itself and the concern you have professionally for the people or implications for workplace effectiveness. You do have the choice not to reveal things about yourself. Some cultures don’t favor revealing anything, which can make writing a reflection paper difficult. Rebecca McClanahan, a creative non-fiction teacher and writer, said that if you were uncomfortable yourself about some issue, then it was not wise to reveal it to others. That is an example of balancing the story and the judgment. For instance, in one chapter, he writes about several honors students he had who treated him badly: one kind student filled him in on their real character, and from that moment on, he realized that intelligence alone would never matter to him again. He tells his story as an inner-city teacher and judges his own actions constantly-he shines a light on his own errors.

The book There Are No Shortcuts by Rafe Esquith is an excellent example. Often students will just tell the story without putting in a judgment.


In this handout, I’d like to show you some of the ways to do well on it.Ī famous writer, Russell Baker, once wrote that great narratives move between the story and evaluation: that means that a writer tells something and then judges. you watched a film and were asked to reflect on it.Ī reflection paper, from a writing standpoint, can be a challenge.your training asked you to perform a task in a particular manner.your class readings challenged you to think (or feel) a different way.Professors assign reflection papers so they can see how much you move from point A to point B.
