writing course reflection essay

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments

• Annotated Bibliography
• Analyzing a Scholarly Journal Article
• Group Presentations
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• Types of Structured Group Activities
• Group Project Survival Skills
• Leading a Class Discussion
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Works
• Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Reflective Paper
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Generative AI and Writing
• Acknowledgments

Reflective writing is a process of identifying, questioning, and critically evaluating course-based learning opportunities, integrated with your own observations, experiences, impressions, beliefs, assumptions, or biases, and which describes how this process stimulated new or creative understanding about the content of the course.

A reflective paper describes and explains in an introspective, first person narrative, your reactions and feelings about either a specific element of the class [e.g., a required reading; a film shown in class] or more generally how you experienced learning throughout the course. Reflective writing assignments can be in the form of a single paper, essays, portfolios, journals, diaries, or blogs. In some cases, your professor may include a reflective writing assignment as a way to obtain student feedback that helps improve the course, either in the moment or for when the class is taught again.

How to Write a Reflection Paper . Academic Skills, Trent University; Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; Tsingos-Lucas et al. "Using Reflective Writing as a Predictor of Academic Success in Different Assessment Formats." American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 81 (2017): Article 8.

Benefits of Reflective Writing Assignments

As the term implies, a reflective paper involves looking inward at oneself in contemplating and bringing meaning to the relationship between course content and the acquisition of new knowledge . Educational research [Bolton, 2010; Ryan, 2011; Tsingos-Lucas et al., 2017] demonstrates that assigning reflective writing tasks enhances learning because it challenges students to confront their own assumptions, biases, and belief systems around what is being taught in class and, in so doing, stimulate student’s decisions, actions, attitudes, and understanding about themselves as learners and in relation to having mastery over their learning. Reflection assignments are also an opportunity to write in a first person narrative about elements of the course, such as the required readings, separate from the exegetic and analytical prose of academic research papers.

Reflection writing often serves multiple purposes simultaneously. In no particular order, here are some of reasons why professors assign reflection papers:

• Enhances learning from previous knowledge and experience in order to improve future decision-making and reasoning in practice . Reflective writing in the applied social sciences enhances decision-making skills and academic performance in ways that can inform professional practice. The act of reflective writing creates self-awareness and understanding of others. This is particularly important in clinical and service-oriented professional settings.
• Allows students to make sense of classroom content and overall learning experiences in relation to oneself, others, and the conditions that shaped the content and classroom experiences . Reflective writing places you within the course content in ways that can deepen your understanding of the material. Because reflective thinking can help reveal hidden biases, it can help you critically interrogate moments when you do not like or agree with discussions, readings, or other aspects of the course.
• Increases awareness of one’s cognitive abilities and the evidence for these attributes . Reflective writing can break down personal doubts about yourself as a learner and highlight specific abilities that may have been hidden or suppressed due to prior assumptions about the strength of your academic abilities [e.g., reading comprehension; problem-solving skills]. Reflective writing, therefore, can have a positive affective [i.e., emotional] impact on your sense of self-worth.
• Applying theoretical knowledge and frameworks to real experiences . Reflective writing can help build a bridge of relevancy between theoretical knowledge and the real world. In so doing, this form of writing can lead to a better understanding of underlying theories and their analytical properties applied to professional practice.
• Reveals shortcomings that the reader will identify . Evidence suggests that reflective writing can uncover your own shortcomings as a learner, thereby, creating opportunities to anticipate the responses of your professor may have about the quality of your coursework. This can be particularly productive if the reflective paper is written before final submission of an assignment.
• Helps students identify their tacit [a.k.a., implicit] knowledge and possible gaps in that knowledge . Tacit knowledge refers to ways of knowing rooted in lived experience, insight, and intuition rather than formal, codified, categorical, or explicit knowledge. In so doing, reflective writing can stimulate students to question their beliefs about a research problem or an element of the course content beyond positivist modes of understanding and representation.
• Encourages students to actively monitor their learning processes over a period of time . On-going reflective writing in journals or blogs, for example, can help you maintain or adapt learning strategies in other contexts. The regular, purposeful act of reflection can facilitate continuous deep thinking about the course content as it evolves and changes throughout the term. This, in turn, can increase your overall confidence as a learner.
• Relates a student’s personal experience to a wider perspective . Reflection papers can help you see the big picture associated with the content of a course by forcing you to think about the connections between scholarly content and your lived experiences outside of school. It can provide a macro-level understanding of one’s own experiences in relation to the specifics of what is being taught.
• If reflective writing is shared, students can exchange stories about their learning experiences, thereby, creating an opportunity to reevaluate their original assumptions or perspectives . In most cases, reflective writing is only viewed by your professor in order to ensure candid feedback from students. However, occasionally, reflective writing is shared and openly discussed in class. During these discussions, new or different perspectives and alternative approaches to solving problems can be generated that would otherwise be hidden. Sharing student's reflections can also reveal collective patterns of thought and emotions about a particular element of the course.

Bolton, Gillie. Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development . London: Sage, 2010; Chang, Bo. "Reflection in Learning." Online Learning 23 (2019), 95-110; Cavilla, Derek. "The Effects of Student Reflection on Academic Performance and Motivation." Sage Open 7 (July-September 2017): 1–13; Culbert, Patrick. “Better Teaching? You Can Write On It “ Liberal Education (February 2022); McCabe, Gavin and Tobias Thejll-Madsen. The Reflection Toolkit . University of Edinburgh; The Purpose of Reflection . Introductory Composition at Purdue University; Practice-based and Reflective Learning . Study Advice Study Guides, University of Reading; Ryan, Mary. "Improving Reflective Writing in Higher Education: A Social Semiotic Perspective." Teaching in Higher Education 16 (2011): 99-111; Tsingos-Lucas et al. "Using Reflective Writing as a Predictor of Academic Success in Different Assessment Formats." American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 81 (2017): Article 8; What Benefits Might Reflective Writing Have for My Students? Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse; Rykkje, Linda. "The Tacit Care Knowledge in Reflective Writing: A Practical Wisdom." International Practice Development Journal 7 (September 2017): Article 5; Using Reflective Writing to Deepen Student Learning . Center for Writing, University of Minnesota.

How to Approach Writing a Reflection Paper

Thinking About Reflective Thinking

Educational theorists have developed numerous models of reflective thinking that your professor may use to frame a reflective writing assignment. These models can help you systematically interpret your learning experiences, thereby ensuring that you ask the right questions and have a clear understanding of what should be covered. A model can also represent the overall structure of a reflective paper. Each model establishes a different approach to reflection and will require you to think about your writing differently. If you are unclear how to fit your writing within a particular reflective model, seek clarification from your professor. There are generally two types of reflective writing assignments, each approached in slightly different ways.

1.  Reflective Thinking about Course Readings

This type of reflective writing focuses on thoughtfully thinking about the course readings that underpin how most students acquire new knowledge and understanding about the subject of a course. Reflecting on course readings is often assigned in freshmen-level, interdisciplinary courses where the required readings examine topics viewed from multiple perspectives and, as such, provide different ways of analyzing a topic, issue, event, or phenomenon. The purpose of reflective thinking about course readings in the social and behavioral sciences is to elicit your opinions, beliefs, and feelings about the research and its significance. This type of writing can provide an opportunity to break down key assumptions you may have and, in so doing, reveal potential biases in how you interpret the scholarship.

If you are assigned to reflect on course readings, consider the following methods of analysis as prompts that can help you get started :

• Examine carefully the main introductory elements of the reading, including the purpose of the study, the theoretical framework being used to test assumptions, and the research questions being addressed. Think about what ideas stood out to you. Why did they? Were these ideas new to you or familiar in some way based on your own lived experiences or prior knowledge?
• Develop your ideas around the readings by asking yourself, what do I know about this topic? Where does my existing knowledge about this topic come from? What are the observations or experiences in my life that influence my understanding of the topic? Do I agree or disagree with the main arguments, recommended course of actions, or conclusions made by the author(s)? Why do I feel this way and what is the basis of these feelings?
• Make connections between the text and your own beliefs, opinions, or feelings by considering questions like, how do the readings reinforce my existing ideas or assumptions? How the readings challenge these ideas or assumptions? How does this text help me to better understand this topic or research in ways that motivate me to learn more about this area of study?

2.  Reflective Thinking about Course Experiences

This type of reflective writing asks you to critically reflect on locating yourself at the conceptual intersection of theory and practice. The purpose of experiential reflection is to evaluate theories or disciplinary-based analytical models based on your introspective assessment of the relationship between hypothetical thinking and practical reality; it offers a way to consider how your own knowledge and skills fit within professional practice. This type of writing also provides an opportunity to evaluate your decisions and actions, as well as how you managed your subsequent successes and failures, within a specific theoretical framework. As a result, abstract concepts can crystallize and become more relevant to you when considered within your own experiences. This can help you formulate plans for self-improvement as you learn.

If you are assigned to reflect on your experiences, consider the following questions as prompts to help you get started :

• Contextualize your reflection in relation to the overarching purpose of the course by asking yourself, what did you hope to learn from this course? What were the learning objectives for the course and how did I fit within each of them? How did these goals relate to the main themes or concepts of the course?
• Analyze how you experienced the course by asking yourself, what did I learn from this experience? What did I learn about myself? About working in this area of research and study? About how the course relates to my place in society? What assumptions about the course were supported or refuted?
• Think introspectively about the ways you experienced learning during the course by asking yourself, did your learning experiences align with the goals or concepts of the course? Why or why do you not feel this way? What was successful and why do you believe this? What would you do differently and why is this important? How will you prepare for a future experience in this area of study?

NOTE: If you are assigned to write a journal or other type of on-going reflection exercise, a helpful approach is to reflect on your reflections by re-reading what you have already written. In other words, review your previous entries as a way to contextualize your feelings, opinions, or beliefs regarding your overall learning experiences. Over time, this can also help reveal hidden patterns or themes related to how you processed your learning experiences. Consider concluding your reflective journal with a summary of how you felt about your learning experiences at critical junctures throughout the course, then use these to write about how you grew as a student learner and how the act of reflecting helped you gain new understanding about the subject of the course and its content.

ANOTHER NOTE: Regardless of whether you write a reflection paper or a journal, do not focus your writing on the past. The act of reflection is intended to think introspectively about previous learning experiences. However, reflective thinking should document the ways in which you progressed in obtaining new insights and understandings about your growth as a learner that can be carried forward in subsequent coursework or in future professional practice. Your writing should reflect a furtherance of increasing personal autonomy and confidence gained from understanding more about yourself as a learner.

Structure and Writing Style

There are no strict academic rules for writing a reflective paper. Reflective writing may be assigned in any class taught in the social and behavioral sciences and, therefore, requirements for the assignment can vary depending on disciplinary-based models of inquiry and learning. The organization of content can also depend on what your professor wants you to write about or based on the type of reflective model used to frame the writing assignment. Despite these possible variations, below is a basic approach to organizing and writing a good reflective paper, followed by a list of problems to avoid.

Pre-flection

In most cases, it's helpful to begin by thinking about your learning experiences and outline what you want to focus on before you begin to write the paper. This can help you organize your thoughts around what was most important to you and what experiences [good or bad] had the most impact on your learning. As described by the University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre, preparing to write a reflective paper involves a process of self-analysis that can help organize your thoughts around significant moments of in-class knowledge discovery.

• Using a thesis statement as a guide, note what experiences or course content stood out to you , then place these within the context of your observations, reactions, feelings, and opinions. This will help you develop a rough outline of key moments during the course that reflect your growth as a learner. To identify these moments, pose these questions to yourself: What happened? What was my reaction? What were my expectations and how were they different from what transpired? What did I learn?
• Critically think about your learning experiences and the course content . This will help you develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding about why these moments were significant or relevant to you. Use the ideas you formulated during the first stage of reflecting to help you think through these moments from both an academic and personal perspective. From an academic perspective, contemplate how the experience enhanced your understanding of a concept, theory, or skill. Ask yourself, did the experience confirm my previous understanding or challenge it in some way. As a result, did this highlight strengths or gaps in your current knowledge? From a personal perspective, think introspectively about why these experiences mattered, if previous expectations or assumptions were confirmed or refuted, and if this surprised, confused, or unnerved you in some way.
• Analyze how these experiences and your reactions to them will shape your future thinking and behavior . Reflection implies looking back, but the most important act of reflective writing is considering how beliefs, assumptions, opinions, and feelings were transformed in ways that better prepare you as a learner in the future. Note how this reflective analysis can lead to actions you will take as a result of your experiences, what you will do differently, and how you will apply what you learned in other courses or in professional practice.

Basic Structure and Writing Style

Reflective Background and Context

The first part of your reflection paper should briefly provide background and context in relation to the content or experiences that stood out to you. Highlight the settings, summarize the key readings, or narrate the experiences in relation to the course objectives. Provide background that sets the stage for your reflection. You do not need to go into great detail, but you should provide enough information for the reader to understand what sources of learning you are writing about [e.g., course readings, field experience, guest lecture, class discussions] and why they were important. This section should end with an explanatory thesis statement that expresses the central ideas of your paper and what you want the readers to know, believe, or understand after they finish reading your paper.

Reflective Interpretation

Drawing from your reflective analysis, this is where you can be personal, critical, and creative in expressing how you felt about the course content and learning experiences and how they influenced or altered your feelings, beliefs, assumptions, or biases about the subject of the course. This section is also where you explore the meaning of these experiences in the context of the course and how you gained an awareness of the connections between these moments and your own prior knowledge.

Guided by your thesis statement, a helpful approach is to interpret your learning throughout the course with a series of specific examples drawn from the course content and your learning experiences. These examples should be arranged in sequential order that illustrate your growth as a learner. Reflecting on each example can be done by: 1)  introducing a theme or moment that was meaningful to you, 2) describing your previous position about the learning moment and what you thought about it, 3) explaining how your perspective was challenged and/or changed and why, and 4) introspectively stating your current or new feelings, opinions, or beliefs about that experience in class.

It is important to include specific examples drawn from the course and placed within the context of your assumptions, thoughts, opinions, and feelings. A reflective narrative without specific examples does not provide an effective way for the reader to understand the relationship between the course content and how you grew as a learner.

Reflective Conclusions

The conclusion of your reflective paper should provide a summary of your thoughts, feelings, or opinions regarding what you learned about yourself as a result of taking the course. Here are several ways you can frame your conclusions based on the examples you interpreted and reflected on what they meant to you. Each example would need to be tied to the basic theme [thesis statement] of your reflective background section.

• Your reflective conclusions can be described in relation to any expectations you had before taking the class [e.g., “I expected the readings to not be relevant to my own experiences growing up in a rural community, but the research actually helped me see that the challenges of developing my identity as a child of immigrants was not that unusual...”].
• Your reflective conclusions can explain how what you learned about yourself will change your actions in the future [e.g., “During a discussion in class about the challenges of helping homeless people, I realized that many of these people hate living on the street but lack the ability to see a way out. This made me realize that I wanted to take more classes in psychology...”].
• Your reflective conclusions can describe major insights you experienced a critical junctures during the course and how these moments enhanced how you see yourself as a student learner [e.g., "The guest speaker from the Head Start program made me realize why I wanted to pursue a career in elementary education..."].
• Your reflective conclusions can reconfigure or reframe how you will approach professional practice and your understanding of your future career aspirations [e.g.,, "The course changed my perceptions about seeking a career in business finance because it made me realize I want to be more engaged in customer service..."]
• Your reflective conclusions can explore any learning you derived from the act of reflecting itself [e.g., “Reflecting on the course readings that described how minority students perceive campus activities helped me identify my own biases about the benefits of those activities in acclimating to campus life...”].

NOTE: The length of a reflective paper in the social sciences is usually less than a traditional research paper. However, don’t assume that writing a reflective paper is easier than writing a research paper. A well-conceived critical reflection paper often requires as much time and effort as a research paper because you must purposeful engage in thinking about your learning in ways that you may not be comfortable with or used to. This is particular true while preparing to write because reflective papers are not as structured as a traditional research paper and, therefore, you have to think deliberately about how you want to organize the paper and what elements of the course you want to reflect upon.

ANOTHER NOTE: Do not limit yourself to using only text in reflecting on your learning. If you believe it would be helpful, consider using creative modes of thought or expression such as, illustrations, photographs, or material objects that reflects an experience related to the subject of the course that was important to you [e.g., like a ticket stub to a renowned speaker on campus]. Whatever non-textual element you include, be sure to describe the object's relevance to your personal relationship to the course content.

Problems to Avoid

A reflective paper is not a “mind dump” . Reflective papers document your personal and emotional experiences and, therefore, they do not conform to rigid structures, or schema, to organize information. However, the paper should not be a disjointed, stream-of-consciousness narrative. Reflective papers are still academic pieces of writing that require organized thought, that use academic language and tone , and that apply intellectually-driven critical thinking to the course content and your learning experiences and their significance.

A reflective paper is not a research paper . If you are asked to reflect on a course reading, the reflection will obviously include some description of the research. However, the goal of reflective writing is not to present extraneous ideas to the reader or to "educate" them about the course. The goal is to share a story about your relationship with the learning objectives of the course. Therefore, unlike research papers, you are expected to write from a first person point of view which includes an introspective examination of your own opinions, feelings, and personal assumptions.

A reflection paper is not a book review . Descriptions of the course readings using your own words is not a reflective paper. Reflective writing should focus on how you understood the implications of and were challenged by the course in relation to your own lived experiences or personal assumptions, combined with explanations of how you grew as a student learner based on this internal dialogue. Remember that you are the central object of the paper, not the research materials.

A reflective paper is not an all-inclusive meditation. Do not try to cover everything. The scope of your paper should be well-defined and limited to your specific opinions, feelings, and beliefs about what you determine to be the most significant content of the course and in relation to the learning that took place. Reflections should be detailed enough to covey what you think is important, but your thoughts should be expressed concisely and coherently [as is true for any academic writing assignment].

Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; Critical Reflection: Journals, Opinions, & Reactions . University Writing Center, Texas A&M University; Connor-Greene, Patricia A. “Making Connections: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Journal Writing in Enhancing Student Learning.” Teaching of Psychology 27 (2000): 44-46; Good vs. Bad Reflection Papers , Franklin University; Dyment, Janet E. and Timothy S. O’Connell. "The Quality of Reflection in Student Journals: A Review of Limiting and Enabling Factors." Innovative Higher Education 35 (2010): 233-244: How to Write a Reflection Paper . Academic Skills, Trent University; Amelia TaraJane House. Reflection Paper . Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence, University of Arkansas; Ramlal, Alana, and Désirée S. Augustin. “Engaging Students in Reflective Writing: An Action Research Project.” Educational Action Research 28 (2020): 518-533; Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; McGuire, Lisa, Kathy Lay, and Jon Peters. “Pedagogy of Reflective Writing in Professional Education.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2009): 93-107; Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; How Do I Write Reflectively? Academic Skills Toolkit, University of New South Wales Sydney; Reflective Writing . Skills@Library. University of Leeds; Walling, Anne, Johanna Shapiro, and Terry Ast. “What Makes a Good Reflective Paper?” Family Medicine 45 (2013): 7-12; Williams, Kate, Mary Woolliams, and Jane Spiro. Reflective Writing . 2nd edition. London: Red Globe Press, 2020; Yeh, Hui-Chin, Shih-hsien Yang, Jo Shan Fu, and Yen-Chen Shih. “Developing College Students’ Critical Thinking through Reflective Writing.” Higher Education Research and Development (2022): 1-16.

Writing Tip

Focus on Reflecting, Not on Describing

Minimal time and effort should be spent describing the course content you are asked to reflect upon. The purpose of a reflection assignment is to introspectively contemplate your reactions to and feeling about an element of the course. D eflecting the focus away from your own feelings by concentrating on describing the course content can happen particularly if "talking about yourself" [i.e., reflecting] makes you uncomfortable or it is intimidating. However, the intent of reflective writing is to overcome these inhibitions so as to maximize the benefits of introspectively assessing your learning experiences. Keep in mind that, if it is relevant, your feelings of discomfort could be a part of how you critically reflect on any challenges you had during the course [e.g., you realize this discomfort inhibited your willingness to ask questions during class, it fed into your propensity to procrastinate, or it made it difficult participating in groups].

Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; Reflection Paper . Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence, University of Arkansas.

Another Writing Tip

Helpful Videos about Reflective Writing

These two short videos succinctly describe how to approach a reflective writing assignment. They are produced by the Academic Skills department at the University of Melbourne and the Skills Team of the University of Hull, respectively.

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• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/assignments

How to Write a Student Course Reflection Paper

Steps in Writing a Reflection Paper

A reflective essay on a course is a personal reflection on how the course affected the student. Reflective essays analyze the course material theories, core concepts and ideas presented by the instructor and then summarizes the writer's feelings about the material. A reflective essay, like all essays, should include an introduction, a body and the conclusion.

Introduce the reader to the course with a summary of the material covered by the course. Describe the method of instruction and the major topics covered. Tell the reader why you took the course and what educational benefits you expected from the course.

Identify the theories and core concepts that were presented during the course. Explain each theory or concept in your own words to demonstrate your understanding of the material.

Describe your feelings about the theories and concepts presented in the course and then analyze them by applying the concepts and theories to real life experiences, if possible. Tell the reader about your feelings on the subject of the course, and describe how and why (or why not) your feelings about the subject, theories and core concepts changed or developed during the course.

Conclude the reflective paper with a summary of your feelings about the course material in the beginning of the course. Summarize your feelings after the course was completed. State how the course helped or did not help you.

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Robin Reichert is a certified nutrition consultant, certified personal trainer and professional writer. She has been studying health and fitness issues for more than 10 years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Science in natural health from Clayton College.

How to Write a Reflective Essay: Easy Guide with Pro Tips

Defining What is a Reflective Essay: Purpose + Importance

Being present is a cornerstone of mindfulness and meditation. You must have often heard that staying in the moment helps you appreciate your surroundings, connects you with people and nature, and allows you to feel whatever emotions you must feel without anxiety. While this is helpful advice as you become more focused and avoid getting lost in thought, how can you truly appreciate the present without reflecting on your past experiences that have led you to the current moment?

We don't say that you should dwell on the past and get carried away with a constant thought process, but hey, hear us out - practice reflective thinking! Think back on your previous life events, paint a true picture of history, and make connections to your present self. This requires you to get a bit analytical and creative. So you might as well document your critical reflection on a piece of paper and give direction to your personal observations. That's when the need for reflective essays steps in!

In a reflective essay, you open up about your thoughts and emotions to uncover your mindset, personality, traits of character, and background. Your reflective essay should include a description of the experience/literature piece as well as explanations of your thoughts, feelings, and reactions. In this article, our essay writer service will share our ultimate guide on how to write a reflective essay with a clear format and reflective essay examples that will inspire you.

How to Write a Reflective Essay with a Proper Reflective Essay Outline

To give you a clear idea of structuring a reflective essay template, we broke down the essential steps below. Primarily, the organization of a reflective essay is very similar to other types of papers. However, our custom writers got more specific with the reflective essay outline to ease your writing process.

Reflective Essay Introduction

When wondering how to start a reflective essay, it is no surprise that you should begin writing your paper with an introductory paragraph. So, what's new and different with the reflection essay introduction? Let's dissect:

• Open your intro with an attention-seizing hook that engages your audience into reflective thinking with you. It can be something like: 'As I was sitting on my bed with my notebook placed on my shaky lap waiting for the letter of acceptance, I could not help but reflect, was enrolling in college the path I wanted to take in the future?'
• Provide context with a quick overview of the reflective essay topic. Don't reveal too much information at the start to prevent your audience from becoming discouraged to continue reading.
• Make a claim with a strong reflective essay thesis statement. It should be a simple explanation of the essay's main point, in this example, a specific event that had a big impact on you.

Reflective Essay Body Paragraphs

The next step is to develop the body of your essay. This section of the paper may be the most challenging because it's simple to ramble and replicate yourself both in the outline and the actual writing. Planning the body properly requires a lot of time and work, and the following advice can assist you in doing this effectively:

• Consider using a sequential strategy. This entails reviewing everything you wish to discuss in the order it occurred. This method ensures that your work is structured and cohesive.
• Make sure the body paragraph is well-rounded and employs the right amount of analysis. The body should go into the effects of the event on your life and the insights you've gained as a consequence.
• Prioritize reflecting rather than summarizing your points. In addition to giving readers insight into your personal experience, a reflective stance will also show off your personality and demonstrate your ability to handle certain challenges.

Reflective Essay Conclusion

The goal of your reflective essay conclusion should be to tie everything together by summarizing the key ideas raised throughout, as well as the lessons you were able to take away from experience.

• Don't forget to include the reasons for and the methods used to improve your beliefs and actions. Think about how your personality and skills have changed as well.
• What conclusions can you draw about your behavior in particular circumstances? What could you do differently if the conditions were the same in the future?

Remember that your instructor will be searching for clear signs of reflection.

Understanding a Reflection Paper Format

The format of reflective essay greatly differs from an argumentative or research paper. A reflective essay is more of a well-structured story or a diary entry rife with insight and reflection. You might be required to arrange your essay using the APA style or the MLA format.

And the typical reflection paper length varies between 300 and 700 words, but ask your instructor about the word length if it was assigned to you. Even though this essay is about you, try to avoid too much informal language.

If your instructor asks you to use an APA or MLA style format for reflective essay, here are a few shortcuts:

Reflective Essay in MLA Format

• Times New Roman 12pt font double spaced;
• 1" margins;
• The top right includes the last name and page number on every page;
• Titles are centered;
• The header should include your name, your professor's name, course number, and the date (dd/mm/yy);
• The last page includes a Works Cited.

Reflective Essay in APA Style

• Include a page header on the top of every page;
• Insert page number on the right;
• Your reflective essay should be divided into four parts: Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.

Reflective Essay Writing Tips

You may think we've armed you with enough tips and pointers for reflective writing, but it doesn't stop here. Below we gathered some expert-approved tips for constructing uncontested reflection papers.

• Be as detailed as possible while writing. To make your reflective essay writing come to life, you should employ several tactics such as symbolism, sentence patterns, etc.
• Keep your audience in mind. The reader will become frustrated if you continue writing in the first person without taking a moment to convey something more important, even though you will likely speak about something from your own perspective.
• Put forth the effort to allow the reader to feel the situation or emotion you are attempting to explain.
• Don't preach; demonstrate. Instead of just reporting what happened, use description appropriately to paint a clear picture of the event or sensation.
• Plan the wording and structure of your reflective essay around a central emotion or subject, such as joy, pleasure, fear, or grief.
• Avoid adding dull elements that can lessen the effect of your work. Why include it if it won't enhance the emotion or understanding you wish to convey?
• There must be a constant sense of progression. Consider whether the event has transformed you or others around you.
• Remember to double-check your grammar, syntax, and spelling.

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Reflective Essay Topic Ideas

As a reflective essay should be about your own views and experiences, you generally can't use someone else's ideas. But to help you get started, here are some suggestions for writing topics:

• An experience you will never forget.
• The moment you overcame a fear.
• The most difficult choice you had to make.
• A time your beliefs were challenged.
• A time something changed your life.
• The happiest or most frightening moment of your life so far.
• Ways you think you or people can make the world a better place.
• A time you felt lost.
• An introspective look at your choices or a time you made the wrong choice.
• A moment in your life you would like to relive.

You may find it convenient to create a chart or table to keep track of your ideas. Split your chart into three parts:

• In the first column, write key experiences or your main points. You can arrange them from most important to least important.
• In the second column, list your response to the points you stated in the first column.
• In the third column, write what, from your response, you would like to share in the essay.

Meanwhile, if you're about to enroll in your dream university and your mind is constantly occupied with - 'how to write my college admissions essay?', order an academic essay on our platform to free you of unnecessary anxiety.

Reflective Essay Sample

Referring to reflective essay examples can help you a lot. A reflective essay sample can provide you with useful insight into how your essay should look like. You can also buy an essay online if you need one customized to your specific requirements.

How to Conclude a Reflective Essay

As we come to an end, it's only logical to reflect on the main points discussed above in the article. By now, you should clearly understand what is a reflective essay and that the key to writing a reflective essay is demonstrating what lessons you have taken away from your experiences and why and how these lessons have shaped you. It should also have a clear reflective essay format, with an opening, development of ideas, and resolution.

Now that you have the tools to create a thorough and accurate reflective paper, you might want to hand over other tasks like writing definition essay examples to our experienced writers. In this case, feel free to buy an essay online on our platform and reflect on your past events without worrying about future assignments!

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Collaboration, information literacy, writing process, reflection essay.

• CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Kristen Gay

At first glance, academic and reflection can sound like contradictory concepts. Writing an academic reflection essay often involves striking a balance between a traditional, academic paper and a reflective essay. In order to find this balance, consider the terms that encompass the title of the assignment

The term “academic” suggests that the writer will be expected to observe conventions for academic writing, such as using a professional tone and crafting a thesis statement. On the other hand, the term “reflection” implies that the writer should critically reflect on their work, project, or writing process, depending on the assignment, and draw conclusions based on these observations.

In general, an academic reflection essay is a combination of these two ideas: writers should observe conventions for academic writing while critically reflecting on their experience or project. Note that the term “critically” suggests that the writing should not merely tell the reader what happened, what you did, or what you learned. Critical reflection takes the writing one step further and entails making an evaluative claim about the experience or project under discussion. Beyond telling readers what happened, critical reflection tends to discuss why it matters and how it contributed to the effectiveness of the project.

Striking the proper balance between critical reflection and academic essay is always determined by the demands of the particular writing situation, so writers should first consider their purpose for writing, their audience, and the project guidelines. While the subject matter of academic reflections is not always “academic,” the writer will usually still be expected to adapt their arguments and points to academic conventions for thesis statements, evidence, organization, style, and formatting.

Several strategies for crafting an academic reflection essay are outlined below based on three important areas: focus, evidence, and organization.

A thesis statement for an academic reflection essay is often an evaluative claim about your experiences with a process or assignment. Several strategies to consider for a thesis statement in an academic reflection essay include:

• Being Critical: It is important to ensure that the evaluative claim does not simply state the obvious, such as that you completed the assignment, or that you did or did not like it. Instead, make a critical claim about whether or not the project was effective in fulfilling its purpose, or whether the project raised new questions for you to consider and somehow changed your perspective on your topic.
• Placement: For some academic reflection essays, the thesis may not come in the introduction but at the end of the paper, once the writer has fully explained their experiences with the project. Think about where the placement of your thesis will be most effective based on your ideas and how your claim relates to them.

Consider the following example of a thesis statement in an academic reflection essay:

By changing my medium from a picture to a pop song, my message that domestic violence disproportionately affects women was more effectively communicated to an audience of my classmates because they found the message to be more memorable when it was accompanied by music.

This thesis makes a critical evaluative claim (that the change of medium was effective) about the project, and is thus a strong thesis for an academic reflection paper.

Evidence for academic reflection essays may include outside sources, but writers are also asked to support their claims by including observations from their own experience. Writers might effectively support their claims by considering the following strategies:

• Incorporating examples: What examples might help support the claims that you make? How might you expand on your points using these examples, and how might you develop this evidence in relation to your thesis?
• Personal anecdotes or observations: How might you choose relevant personal anecdotes/observations to illustrate your points and support your thesis?
• Logical explanations: How might you explain the logic behind a specific point you are making in order to make it more credible to readers?

Consider the following example for incorporating evidence in an academic reflection essay:

Claim: Changing the medium for my project from a picture to a pop song appealed to my audience of fellow classmates.

Evidence: When I performed my pop song remediation for my classmates, they paid attention to me and said that the message, once transformed into song lyrics, was very catchy and memorable. By the end of the presentation, some of them were even singing along.

In this example, the claim (that the change of medium was effective in appealing to the new audience of fellow classmates) is supported because the writer reveals their observation of the audience’s reaction. (For more about using examples and anecdotes as examples, see “Nontraditional Types of Evidence.”)

Organization

For academic reflection essays, the organizational structure may differ from traditional academic or narrative essays because you are reflecting on your own experiences or observations. Consider the following organizational structures for academic reflection essays:

• Chronological Progression: The progression of points will reflect the order of events/insights as they occurred temporally in the project.

Sample Chronological Organization for a Remediation Reflection:

Paragraph 1: Beginning of the project

Paragraph 2: Progression of the remediation process

Paragraph 3: Progression of the remediation process

Paragraph 4: Progression of the remediation process

Paragraph 5: Progression of the remediation process

Paragraph 6: Conclusion—Was the project effective. How and why? How did the process end?

• By Main Idea/Theme: The progression of points will centralize on main ideas or themes of the project.

Sample Organization By Main Idea/Theme for a Remediation Reflection:

Paragraph 1: Introduction

Paragraph 2: Discuss the message being translated

Paragraph 3: Discuss the change of medium

Paragraph 4: Discuss the change of audience

Paragraph 5: Was the change effective? Explain.

Paragraph 6: Conclusion

Remember that while these strategies are intended to help you approach an academic reflection paper with confidence, they are not meant to be prescriptive. Academic reflection essays are often unique to the writer because they ask the writer to consider their observations or reactions to an experience or project. You have distinctive ideas and observations to discuss, so it is likely that your paper will reflect this distinctiveness. With this in mind, consider how to most effectively compose your paper based on your specific project guidelines, instructor suggestions, and your experiences with the project.

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Study Skills

Reflective practice toolkit, introduction.

• What is reflective practice?
• Everyday reflection
• Models of reflection
• Barriers to reflection
• Free writing
• Reflective writing exercise
• Bibliography

Many people worry that they will be unable to write reflectively but chances are that you do it more than you think!  It's a common task during both work and study from appraisal and planning documents to recording observations at the end of a module. The following pages will guide you through some simple techniques for reflective writing as well as how to avoid some of the most common pitfalls.

What is reflective writing?

Writing reflectively involves critically analysing an experience, recording how it has impacted you and what you plan to do with your new knowledge. It can help you to reflect on a deeper level as the act of getting something down on paper often helps people to think an experience through.

The key to reflective writing is to be analytical rather than descriptive. Always ask why rather than just describing what happened during an experience. 

Remember...

Reflective writing is...

• Written in the first person
• Free flowing
• A tool to challenge assumptions
• A time investment

Reflective writing isn't...

• Written in the third person
• Descriptive
• What you think you should write
• A tool to ignore assumptions
• A waste of time

Adapted from The Reflective Practice Guide: an Interdisciplinary Approach / Barbara Bassot.

You can learn more about reflective writing in this handy video from Hull University:

Created by SkillsTeamHullUni

• Hull reflective writing video transcript (Word)
• Hull reflective writing video transcript (PDF)

Where might you use reflective writing?

You can use reflective writing in many aspects of your work, study and even everyday life. The activities below all contain some aspect of reflective writing and are common to many people:

1. Job applications

Both preparing for and writing job applications contain elements of reflective writing. You need to think about the experience that makes you suitable for a role and this means reflection on the skills you have developed and how they might relate to the specification. When writing your application you need to expand on what you have done and explain what you have learnt and why this matters - key elements of reflective writing.

2. Appraisals

In a similar way, undertaking an appraisal is a good time to reflect back on a certain period of time in post. You might be asked to record what went well and why as well as identifying areas for improvement.

3. Written feedback

If you have made a purchase recently you are likely to have received a request for feedback. When you leave a review of a product or service online then you need to think about the pros and cons. You may also have gone into detail about why the product was so good or the service was so bad so other people know how to judge it in the future.

4. Blogging

Blogs are a place to offer your own opinion and can be a really good place to do some reflective writing. Blogger often take a view on something and use their site as a way to share it with the world. They will often talk about the reasons why they like/dislike something - classic reflective writing.

5. During the research process

When researchers are working on a project they will often think about they way they are working and how it could be improved as well as considering different approaches to achieve their research goal. They will often record this in some way such as in a lab book and this questioning approach is a form of reflective writing.

6. In academic writing

Many students will be asked to include some form of reflection in an academic assignment, for example when relating a topic to their real life circumstances. They are also often asked to think about their opinion on or reactions to texts and other research and write about this in their own work.

Think about ... When you reflect

Think about all of the activities you do on a daily basis. Do any of these contain elements of reflective writing? Make a list of all the times you have written something reflective over the last month - it will be longer than you think!

Reflective terminology

A common mistake people make when writing reflectively is to focus too much on describing their experience. Think about some of the phrases below and try to use them when writing reflectively to help you avoid this problem:

• The most important thing was...
• At the time I felt...
• This was likely due to...
• After thinking about it...
• I learned that...
• I need to know more about...
• Later I realised...
• This was because...
• This was like...
• I wonder what would happen if...
• I'm still unsure about...
• My next steps are...

Always try and write in the first person when writing reflectively. This will help you to focus on your thoughts/feelings/experiences rather than just a description of the experience.

Using reflective writing in your academic work

Many courses will also expect you to reflect on your own learning as you progress through a particular programme. You may be asked to keep some type of reflective journal or diary. Depending on the needs of your course this may or may not be assessed but if you are using one it's important to write reflectively. This can help you to look back and see how your thinking has evolved over time - something useful for job applications in the future. Students at all levels may also be asked to reflect on the work of others, either as part of a group project or through peer review of their work. This requires a slightly different approach to reflection as you are not focused on your own work but again this is a useful skill to develop for the workplace.

You can see some useful examples of reflective writing in academia from Monash University ,  UNSW (the University of New South Wales) and Sage . Several of these examples also include feedback from tutors which you can use to inform your own work.

Laptop/computer/broswer/research by StockSnap via Pixabay licenced under CC0.

Now that you have a better idea of what reflective writing is and how it can be used it's time to practice some techniques.

This page has given you an understanding of what reflective writing is and where it can be used in both work and study. Now that you have a better idea of how reflective writing works the next two pages will guide you through some activities you can use to get started.

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Andrew duffy.

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Final Reflective Essay

At the beginning of the course, I was new to college writing. My writing skills were not bad, but they needed some fine tuning. A lot of the skills I have translated over easily from high school, but some did not. I was always good at getting information and laying down a foundation. Alongside that, I’ve always found writing easy once I have that base. Filling out the main ideas were simple. However, once I arrived in college it was apparent to myself that I needed more detail, and that it was something I lacked. It needed improving, but it was not a hard fix. Sometimes it is hard for me to understand why some writing needs more detail but others do not. This class has helped me fix that issue a bit, while also strengthening my proficiency in other areas. Throughout the semester, I have completed assignments that have increased my skills, and broadened my sense as a writer in different areas. By taking this class, I have been able to develop rhetorical knowledge, develop critical thinking, reading, and information literacy, develop effective strategies for drafting texts, and develop knowledge of conventions.

This class has helped me develop rhetorical knowledge by analyzing and composing multiple forms of writing to understand how genre conventions shape readers’ and writers’ practices and purposes. This means that I have been able to analyze different types of writing in order to understand how a genre affects how an author writes, and how the reader reads. One assignment that comes to mind that helped me achieve this outcome was our advertisement analysis assignments. In class, we spent time looking at different advertisements, and how they appealed to certain audiences. We all had to bring an advertisement to class, and analyze it ourselves, pointing out what techniques the ads were using, if they were effective or not, and who were they targeting. This assignment helps develop rhetoric as it allowed me to understand how the category of advertisement writing can differ from not only other genres, but other ads as well.

Rhetoric knowledge was also developed by practicing purposeful shifts in structure, content, diction, tone, formality, design, and/or medium in accordance with the rhetorical situation, which means to be able to change your writing to reflect the rhetorical situation at hand. This was not the result of one assignment, but many. During the course we were asked to write different essays that reflected different styles of writing. From storytelling and analyzation, to infographics and research assignments, I have been able to change how I write in order to meet the requirements. For example, in the literacy narrative, I had to write to convey a story. This means using traditional elements of a story, such as a beginning, middle, climax, and resolution, along with elements such as foreshadowing. This style of writing is different from an image analysis essay, where the purpose is mostly informative rather than anecdotal. In this case, elements such as facts, context, and comparison are common, and story like elements would not be appropriate here. I display that I have met this outcome by understanding how to write in those genres and how to keep it appropriate.

Another outcome this class has helped me meet is developing critical thinking, reading, and information literacy by composing and reading for inquiry, learning, critical thinking, and communicating. One such way I have met this outcome is by writing journals almost every class about different things. Every so often we had to write a journal about our thoughts about either our writing skills, how we defined different terms, and our reflections on our assignments. By completing these journals, I was able to look back on certain assignments, and learn how I was able to accomplish what I did. This style of writing is helpful because of its creative nature, and allows myself to become better as a writer.

Two more ways I was able to develop my critical thinking, reading, and information literacy skills was by using outside materials in their own writing through techniques such as interpretation, synthesis, response, critique, and design/redesign, and incorporating outside materials through quotations, paraphrase, and summary. By completing the image analysis essay, I was able to meet the outcome about using outside materials in your own writing. I used two advertisements in the essay, and analyzed how they were done, and who they targeted, in order to compare and contrast them at the end. I appropriately commented on their effectiveness, and how they could have improved. Speaking of using outside materials, my research essay demonstrated the outcome related to using paraphrase due to the nature of the assignment. By using outside sources, I was able to make my argument stronger, and I was able to improve as a writer because my skill to read and take information away improved.

The third outcome this class helped me to achieve was to develop effective strategies for drafting texts by working through multiple drafts of a project and recognizing the role of reflecting, revising, and editing in the process, engaging in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes, such as learning to give and to act on productive feedback to works in progress, both by and with peers and in one-on-one instructor conferences, and critically reflecting on how they may further develop and apply writing skills in the future. The first outcome was reached simply through the rough drafts of each project. I usually had to brainstorm first, but afterwards, I was able to just write in order to get the information down. It had quite a few flaws to begin with, but during editing, most of them were ironed out easily. The second outcome was achieved through peer review. This was something I had always struggled with because I did not know how to do it. After learning, I saw how important it was. It allowed me to see mistakes my brain would have never saw, and let me see what my most common mistake were, which then allowed me to know what to avoid when writing. By reviewing other’s works, I was able to see common writing errors in general, and thus gave me information about what to avoid. The last outcome was achieved through peer review reflection. This is self-explanatory, but being able to reflect on the advice given is helpful. Mostly because it allows you to take a step back, and go over everything. You can see what you did well, and what you need to avoid in the future. This way, in future endeavors, the same mistakes will hopefully not be made.

The last outcome this class helped me to achieve was to develop knowledge of conventions by demonstrating competence in grammar, punctuation, and spelling, practicing genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, tone and mechanics, and understanding the concepts of intellectual property that motivate documentation conventions through application of recognized citation styles. The first two outcomes are rather similar, in the regard that most of the assignments help reach this outcome. Grammar will never change in writing, so it is important to get it write initially. The only assignment that really tested this was peer review. Being able to recognize sentences that do not make sense is helpful, and will help a writer catch confusing or contradicting statements. As for practicing genre conventions, almost every project helped display that. Writing paragraphs and formatting them correctly is easy, so there is not reason to drag on about this point. Lastly, the assignment that helped reach the outcome about citing intellectual property was the research assignment. It is important to cite your sources so that you do not plagiarize someone’s work, and jeopardize your own academic career. The research assignment helped because you had to find sources for you argument, and as a result, citations would follow.

During the course, I was faced with a few assignments where I had to write day by day, and not just in one day. Writing is not something to do, but rather a process that you have to follow in order to succeed. Many of the different assignments helped improve my skills in rhetoric, critical thinking, drafting, and conventions. While some did not improve much, others did exponentially. The work is not perfect, but for a beginner in college, it shows that I am willing to put in the time and effort to become more than just a beginner. As I progress through school, I hope to not only maintain these skills, but improve them also. Writing is not something that you leave behind after leaving school, so it is important that I take these skills not only with me for the next four years, but for the rest of my life. If I succeed in doing that, then I will always be prepared for any assignment that my field of interest throws at me.

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General tips for academic reflections

An overview of key things to keep in mind for academic reflections.

Make sure you know what the assessor is asking for

Your main consideration when producing written or any kind of academic reflection is to know exactly what is expected of you. Therefore, you should ask your assessor what kind of language and structure they are expecting. With that in mind, the characteristics described here and in the sections on language and structure for academic reflections are what is often sought after.

Language of academic reflections

Structure of academic reflections

Using private reflections as foundations for academic reflections

Academic reflective writing is often used to evidence that you have done reflection. Therefore, it is often beneficial to first do a private reflection where you can be as informal and unstructured as you want, and then readapt that into a piece of academic writing.

By using a private reflection initially, you can ensure that you get the full learning opportunity without censoring yourself or being conscious of language, before deciding how best to present your reflections to your assessor. This is similar to figuring out what your argument is and taking notes before writing an essay, or to all the background work you do to solve a technical/mathematical problem that you do not include in your hand-in.

Just as developing your argument and working through each step of a problem can be essential for the final essay or hand-in, for some people doing a private reflection can be very helpful in writing an effective academic reflection. For others, writing their reflection in a formal and structured way from the outset helps them structure their thoughts.

The core elements of academic reflective writing

Academic reflective writing is a genre and just like an essay has characteristics, so does academic reflective writing.

Academic reflective writing requires critical and analytic thought, a clear line of argument, and the use of evidence through examples of personal experiences and thoughts and often also theoretical literature.

You should aim for a balance between personal experience, tone, and academic practice and rigor.

Academic reflective writing should:

• develop a perspective or line of reasoning
• develop a link between your experience or practice and existing knowledge (theoretical or personal)
• show understanding and appreciation of different perspectives to your own
• show recognition that your own understanding is likely incomplete and situations are rarely clear-cut and simplistic
• show learning resulting from the reflection (either by discovering something new or confirming existing knowledge) and how you plan to use it
• be written in an appropriate style with language relevant to your academic discipline
• sometimes, but not always, use theoretical literature to inform your understanding. 

People can have misconceptions about academic reflective writing – some of the common ones are described below.

Developed from:

Ryan, M., 2011. Improving reflective writing in higher education: a social semiotic perspective. Teaching in Higher Education, 16(1), 99-111.

University of Portsmouth, Department for Curriculum and Quality Enhancement (date unavailable). Reflective Writing: a basic introduction [online].  Portsmouth: University of Portsmouth.

Queen Margaret University, Effective Learning Service (date unavailable).  Reflection. [online].  Edinburgh: Queen Margaret University.

The Reflective Essay

The reflective essay serves two key purposes in your portfolio:

• First, it gives your reviewers some insight into your development as a writer and the role writing has played in your Carleton education.
• Second, it allows you to tell your readers about each individual essay in the portfolio–where and how you came to write it, why you included it, what it reveals about you as a writer, etc.
• Third, and perhaps most importantly, writing the reflective essay allows you, the writer, to stop and consider what you have gained from your varied writing experiences at Carleton and how you intend to develop your skills going forward.

These three purposes mean that the reflective essay is perhaps the most important single component of your portfolio. Since it’s the only item you will write exclusively for the portfolio, it’s the only opportunity you will have to connect directly with your reviewers and draw their attention to the most important qualities of your writing. Furthermore, the reflective essay provides you an opportunity to take stock of your own writing and draw your own conclusions about its strengths and weaknesses, rather than relying on the assessments of your professors. Thus, the amount of time and effort you put into your reflective essay will often determine whether you find the portfolio process to be a valuable experience or just another hurdle on the way to graduation.

The questions below should serve as a guide for your reflective essay. You do not have to address the questions in any particular order, nor do you have to give them all equal time and attention (though you should try to address them all in some way).    Furthermore, if any of the questions simply do not apply to your experience, feel free to skip them or reframe them. In the end, your reflective essay as a whole should read as just that—a single essay with a clear flow of ideas throughout, not a series of short responses to each of the questions below. The primary goal here is to provide your readers with useful context for your writing, not to answer these particular questions in this particular order.

• Note: these need not be specifically writing skills, just skills that helped you as a writer . For instance, you may have found that your time management skills were a significant asset as you began to tackle college-level writing assignments.
• What challenges (if any) did you face in meeting the expectations for writing in your Carleton classes? How did you meet these challenges?
• How have you grown or developed as a writer over the past two years?  How has the writing you’ve completed fit into your overall progress as a student, scholar, or thinker at Carleton?
• How do you expect writing to fit into your academic work in the future? What aspects of your writing do you plan to develop further?

Your reflective essay should also explain how each of the essays you selected from your Carleton classes fits into the overall narrative of your development as a writer. You can address this over the course of the essay, as part of the overall narrative or argument, or you can include a series of paragraphs at the end of the essay that addresses each piece in turn. Either way, some questions you might address here are:

• How does each essay demonstrate major skills you’ve acquired or improved? (These do not necessarily need to line up with the portfolio requirements — analysis, interpretation, observation, etc. — you can also just state in your own words what you feel you gained from writing each essay.)
• Do one or more of them represent significant “turning points” or moments in your development as a writer?  
• Do one or more of them illustrate something about your individual style or approach to writing?

You should write at least a sentence or two about each essay in the portfolio, but you can certainly write more if you have more to say about a given piece. Regardless of how much you write about each essay, though, it is extremely important that you address what each piece brings to the portfolio, because this allows your readers understand what  you  want them to see when they review your work.

Length and Format

There is no minimum or maximum length for the reflective essay, but as a general guideline, it should be roughly 500-1200 words (~2-3 standard, double-spaced pages). Anything less than 500 words and you are unlikely to address the key ideas in enough depth to engage your readers. Anything more than 1200 words and readers are likely to begin “skimming” fairly heavily as they read.

Regardless of length, your reflective essay should be double-spaced and written in an easily readable 12-point font.

Titles are encouraged, but not required, though you should at the very least clearly label the document “Reflective Essay” at the top.

Additional Guidelines

Your reflective essay should:.

• Make an overall argument about how you have developed as a writer since your first term at Carleton.
• Use details from your personal experience to support your conclusions.
• Address how each of your essays in some way illustrates your development.
• Be roughly 500-1000 words long (roughly 2-3 double-spaced pages).
• Maintain a generally academic tone. It’s okay to be light or even humorous in your essay, but you should avoid being glib or dismissive of the portfolio process.
• Stay focused on your experience — i.e. it should not read as an evaluation of your individual classes or Carleton as a whole (though you’re free to express positive or negative opinions about the college that are relevant to your experience).

Your Reflective essay should NOT:

• For example, you might mention that an essay came from your A&I course in order to explain how it illustrates some of the writing abilities you brought with you from high school, but also illustrates some weaknesses in your writing that you improved upon in later essays–ideally essays that are also included in the portfolio.
• Simply restate basic ethos of the college (e.g. “I believe that writing is essential in a liberal arts education…”) without explaining how these ideas apply to your experience. Your goal is not to prove that you have internalized the “Carleton philosophy” of liberal arts education and the importance of writing. Rather, your readers want to see how you have experienced and grown from your time here.

Your Reflective Essay CAN:

• Point out areas where your writing has improved over time. You might, for example, acknowledge that a more recent essay in your portfolio has a better argument or more refined language than an essay from several terms back.
• Discuss your experiences as a writer before Carleton, particularly if you transferred to Carleton from another college or university.
• Recognize particular challenges you’ve faced in developing your writing skills, such as learning English as a second language or not having significant experience with academic writing before Carleton.
• Express criticisms or disappointments with your experiences at Carleton. While you should keep your audience (Carleton faculty and staff) and the context (an assessment of your academic writing skills) in mind, you do not have to be a “cheerleader” for Carleton. If you feel that there are gaps or shortcomings in the education you’ve received over the past few years that have made it more challenging for you to develop your writing skills in the way you wished to, you are welcome to say so.

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Examples of Reflective Writing

Types of reflective writing assignments.

A journal  requires you to write weekly entries throughout a semester. May require you to base your reflection on course content.

A learning diary is similar to a journal, but may require group participation. The diary then becomes a place for you to communicate in writing with other group members.

A logbook is often used in disciplines based on experimental work, such as science. You note down or 'log' what you have done. A log gives you an accurate record of a process and helps you reflect on past actions and make better decisions for future actions.

A reflective note is often used in law. A reflective note encourages you to think about your personal reaction to a legal issue raised in a course.

An essay diary  can take the form of an annotated bibliography (where you examine sources of evidence you might include in your essay) and a critique (where you reflect on your own writing and research processes).

a peer review  usually involves students showing their work to their peers for feedback.

A self-assessment task  requires you to comment on your own work.

Some examples of reflective writing

Social science fieldwork report (methods section), engineering design report, learning journal (weekly reflection).

Brookfield, S 1987, Developing critical thinkers: challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting , Open University Press, Milton Keynes.

Mezirow, J 1990, Fostering critical reflection in adulthood: a guide to transformative and emancipatory learning , Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Schön, DA 1987, Educating the reflective practitioner , Jossey-Bass. San Francisco.

We thank the students who permitted us to feature examples of their writing.

Prepared by Academic Skills, UNSW. This guide may be distributed or adapted for educational purposes. Full and proper acknowledgement is required. 

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The College Writing Course Reflection Essay

Introduction, developing a thesis, prewriting, drafting, revising, argumentation, logical fallacies, finding sources.

During the course, we learned that college essay writing is a complex process considering specific aspects and using certain strategies to create an organized, logical, and clear paper. Every essay attempts to explain a specific fact, analyze a phenomenon, or present the author’s view. For this reason, to remain focused, it is critical to develop and support the thesis sentence, introducing the topic of the essay and the author’s perspective on it. It will create the basis for the following discussion. At the same time, it is vital to support the topic sentences with arguments and ensure they help follow the logic and avoid fallacies. Moreover, prewriting, drafting, and revision are essential parts of college writing as they help to reflect on the text and correct mistakes. Additionally, the major assumptions should be supported with evidence from credible sources, meaning their choice is vital for an essay. In such a way, considering all these elements will help to create an excellent and structured essay.

An essential takeaway of the course is that developing a thesis sentence is one of the fundamental and most important parts of college writing. Every essay should focus on a specific aspect or phenomenon a person wants to investigate or present to the audience. Thus, the correctly formulated thesis sentence helps to introduce the central point of the paper and familiarize the readers with the aspects that will be discussed. It will also guarantee their involvement and a better understanding of the discussed aspects. At the same time, a strong thesis should consist of two elements. The first one is the topic itself, which explains the idea of an essay, and the second one is the angle, which makes the paper more personified and illustrates the author’s view on the theme under discussion. The thesis sentence should impact the choice of arguments and their presentation to the audience. In such a way, any essay should start with developing a solid thesis and using it as a guide for further writing.

Moreover, during the course, we learned that writing an essay is a process consisting of several phases. They are needed to ensure the final paper does not have logical fallacies and succeeds in presenting the topic to the audience. For this reason, prewriting, drafting, and revising are fundamental elements of academic writing. The first one starts before the first draft of the planned paper emerges. It implies the process of selecting ideas and how they can be discussed. Brainstorming, or freewriting, can be used to assist in organizing thoughts. Drafting is the next step in working on the essay. It implies structuring the central ideas and creating an outline showing how they will be presented. Following the outline, it is possible to select topic sentences for every paragraph and introduce logical arguments supporting the major assumptions. Finally, the first draft should be revised to ensure there are no mistakes or fallacies deteriorating the understanding of the presented problem. In such a way, a final essay can be considered a result of prewriting, drafting, and revising activities.

Argumentation is another critical aspect of college writing that requires much attention. It implies supporting the major assumptions with credible and clear arguments to ensure readers understand them and the proposed paper remains relevant. In such a way, correctly selected facts and ideas increase the understandability of the paper and make it more interesting for the target audience. However, argumentation should support the thesis sentence and help to present the topic selected by the author and the claim. Otherwise, there is a high risk of mistakes and logical fallacies. Moreover, it is vital that the arguments selected to prove a particular perspective are credible and supported by other writers. It will contribute to the paper’s increased credibility and relevance. In such a way, every essay should have solid argumentation implying the use of logic to support the perspective peculiar to the paper. It will help to show the significance of the discussed aspects and persuade the readers that the position protected by the author might be relevant.

The course also helped to understand the concept of logical fallacies. Reviewing the paper might help to find logical fallacies, deteriorating the power of the used arguments and reducing the paper’s credibility. Thus, it can be determined as the errors in reasoning occurring because of using untrue premises or invalid arguments. In almost all cases, the logical fallacies complicate the understanding of the paper and reduce its value. The inability to organize the essay and present arguments logically indicates the weakness of the thesis, poor selection of claims, or the incorrect use of examples or assumptions to support them. In such a way, every argument used in writing should be evaluated to ensure there are no fallacies. Analyzing the appeal to ethos, logos, or pathos, it is possible to find whether they are reasonable and contribute to the paper’s better understanding. In such a way, reviewing the paper, it is possible to guarantee that it does not have logical fallacies and is understandable for readers. It is one of the critical features of good college writing.

Finally, every claim made by the author in the essay should be supported with credible arguments. For this reason, working on a thesis requires determining whether it is researchable and can be investigated. It implies finding credible sources and creating a pool of works that can be used to build strong arguments and guarantee the major assumptions are linked to the relevant and up-to-date information offered by reputable authors. At the same time, it is vital to consider that various types of essays require different sources. These include primary, secondary, and tertiary sources linked to the same issue. Primary sources might be viewed as the most valuable and credible ones; however, some arguments might be strengthened by primary works or studies by other authors who summarize information on the discussed topic. At the same time, scholarly and peer-reviewed articles can be considered the most common type of sources used for papers. They can add credibility to essays and make them more relevant. For this reason, when working on the essay, it is important to use various research strategies to investigate databases and find necessary information.

Altogether, the course showed that collect writing is a complex process, and it is vital to consider several essential factors. First, it is fundamental to formulate a strong thesis sentence introducing a topic and the author’s view on it. At the same time, all claims made within the body of the paper should be supported by the arguments. It will help to avoid logical fallacies and increase the relevance of the paper. Moreover, writing an essay is a long process consisting of prewriting, drafting, and revising. These activities are vital for creating the overall image of the would-be essay, drafting an outline, and reading the ready work to find mistakes and logical fallacies. The paper’s credibility can be enhanced if relevant sources, such as peer-reviewed articles, are used. Although it might seem complicated, it is vital to master college writing and learn how to create logical and structured papers. Acquired skills can be used to make other documents, such as business letters, reports, or emails.

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IvyPanda. (2024, January 9). The College Writing Course Reflection. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-college-writing-course-reflection/

"The College Writing Course Reflection." IvyPanda , 9 Jan. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/the-college-writing-course-reflection/.

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1. IvyPanda . "The College Writing Course Reflection." January 9, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-college-writing-course-reflection/.

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Course Reflection - Logan Williams

Course Reflection

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Teaching Connections

Advancing discussions about teaching, who’s afraid of academic writing a reflective essay on dispelling anxiety and fear in an academic writing course.

WONG Jock Onn Centre for English Language Communication (CELC)

Jock Onn considers how educators can apply an ethics of care in their teaching, as he takes us through survey findings on students’ perspectives towards academic writing, particularly the emotions they associate with this activity and the challenges they face.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

I had previously spent many semesters in my teaching practice developing methods that I thought would help students excel in academic writing. It did not matter to me at the time that student feedback told me that my coursework was demanding; I took it to mean that I was on the right track (Wong, 2023a). It was only in recent years that I realised the need to show more care in my teaching (Wong, 2023b). Last year, amazingly, for the first time, the word ‘care’ appeared in my student feedback. A student wrote, “Dr Wong displays care for his students…” Realising the importance of care, I decided to find out why students need care and conducted a simple Google survey (entitled “Attitudes Towards Academic Writing”) last semester with my three classes. I asked them to make known the emotions they associate with academic writing, write qualitative comments on their answers, and tell me what challenges they face. I received 41 responses, and the survey yielded some tentative but interesting findings.

The survey asked, “Which of the following emotions do you associate with academic writing?” As shown in Table 1, over 50% of the students associated academic writing with fear and anxiety. Slightly over a quarter associated it with a rather positive feeling (26.8%) and only a very small percentage (4.9%) associated it with something very positive. The fact that over half of the respondents associated academic writing with fear (53.7%) and anxiety (63.4%) was a surprise to me. Fortunately, less than 10% hated academic writing.

Students also gave qualitative comments on why they experienced fear and anxiety in academic writing. Some indicated that they had insufficient linguistic knowledge, including the vocabulary and skills to write academically. A few even claimed that they did not know what academic writing entails. Other respondents indicated a lack of confidence. For example, a student wrote that knowing that their work is being graded caused anxiety. Several students attributed their anxiety to uncertainty and a lack of confidence in academic writing. In some cases, fear or anxiety was a result of bad experiences in junior college (JC). A student recounted their JC experience, when they had to produce an essay in three hours, causing their brain and hand to hurt.

The survey further asked respondents to tick the problems they face in academic writing from a list. Table 2 shows that the top three problems students face in academic writing have to do with not knowing what constitutes academic writing, not having enough ideas, and sentence cohesion . More than half of the students said that they did not know how to write academically (58.5%) and did not have enough ideas for writing (51.2%). Also, over 30% of respondents had problems with the introduction (‘don’t know how to start’) (36.6%), and grammar (34.1%).

Table 2 Problems that students face (in decreasing order of importance)

Anxiety is said to be “one of the critical individual affective factors in the process of learning a second language or a foreign language” (He et al., 2021, p. 1). Presumably, the same could be said of the process of learning academic writing. Anxiety, as studies suggest, is linked to “avoidance of the feared situation and loss of motivation to perform”, which could adversely affect retention (England et al., 2017, p. 2/17). Student anxiety and fear can ultimately affect language performance (Soriano & Co, 2022, p. 450). Thus, dispelling anxiety and fear among students is a pedagogic imperative.   

To dispel anxiety and fear, one would benefit from understanding what they mean. I believe most of us do. However, two co-authors offer an interesting perspective. According to Kastrup and Mallow (2016), fear “deals with things of which there is good reason to be afraid”, whereas anxiety means “being scared of something that is not intrinsically fearful” (pp. 3-1). Although Kastrup and Mallow (2016) speak in the context of science, their definitions seem to make general sense. As educators, we recognise that while some student concerns are practical in nature (e.g., they do not know the rules), others seem to be psychological. The solution to practical concerns could be addressed in a more straightforward fashion by using sound teaching methods; however, psychological barriers may require a different approach.

My proposed way of addressing the psychological challenge is to replace the bad experiences with pleasant ones. As Cook (2021) puts it, teachers “must provide instructor presence by providing a positive education experience for students” and give them “a sense of belonging” (p. 136). The teacher can achieve this by creating a positive learning experience through an ethic of care (Noddings, 2012). The teacher can display “empathic concern” (Patel, 2023) by acknowledging student perspectives in class, using inclusive languages, encouraging open communication, and accommodating student needs (p. 64). The teacher can create “a safe learning environment” by establishing “rules of engagement” and encouraging students to “explain their answers” in class without labelling the answers as “wrong” or “incorrect” (Teo, 2023, p. 79). After all, “harsh criticisms” can impede learning (Soriano & Co, 2022, p. 452), whereas positive feedback can alleviate anxiety (He et al., 2021). A student recently gave feedback that I often asked them whether they understood what I had taught, and this suggests that checking for understanding regularly is reassuring. To this end, the teacher could use ungraded quizzes, which do not cause student anxiety (England et al., 2017). There are many other things a teacher could do in this vein to help address such psychological learning barriers (Harvard Medical School, 2017; Abigail, 2019).

To maximise student learning, the teacher plays a big role, a role much bigger than I had previously thought—the teacher has a responsibility to dispel fear and anxiety among students. I agree with Kastrup and Mallow (2016) that it is the teachers “who most affect the anxiety (or lack thereof) of the students” (pp. 3-12). I would now say that what makes an excellent teacher is not just the use of time-tested teaching methods but also a capacity to care (Wong, 2023b). Thus, for me, the obvious way forward is to ‘integrate care in higher education’ by ‘teaching with heart’ (Holles, 2023, p. 18).

Abigail, H. (2019, March 5). Tips to beat back writing anxiety . Retrieved from IUPUI University Writing Center Blog: https://liberalarts.iupui.edu/programs/uwc/tips-to-beat-back-writing-anxiety/

Cook, M. (2021). Students’ perceptions of interactions from instructor presence, cognitive presence, and social presence in online lessons. International Journal of TESOL Studies (Special Issue “ELT in the Time of the Coronavirus 2020”, Part 3), 3 (1), 134-161. https://doi.org/10.46451/ijts.2021.03.03

England, B. J., Brigati, J. R., & Schussler, E. E. (2017, August 3). Student anxiety in introductory biology classrooms: Perceptions about active learning and persistence in the major. PLoS One, 12 (8), e0182506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182506

Harvard Medical School. (2017, October 13). Write your anxieties away . Retrieved from Harvard Health Blog: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/write-your-anxieties-away-2017101312551

He, X., Zhou, D., & Zhang, X. (2021, July-September). An empirical study on Chinese University students’ English Language classroom anxiety with the idiodynamic approach. Sage Open, 11 (3), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211037676

Holles, C. (2023). Faculty-student interaction and well-being: The call for care. International Journal of TESOL Studies, 5 (3), 7-20. https://doi.org/10.58304/ijts.20230302

Kastrup, H., & Mallow, J. V. (2016). Student Attitudes, Student Anxieties, and How to Address Them: A Handbook for Science Teachers. Morgan & Claypool Publishers. https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/978-1-6817-4265-6

Noddings, N. (2012). The caring relation in teaching. Oxford Review of Education, 38 (6), 771-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2012.745047

Patel, S. N. (2023). Empathetic and dialogic interactions: Modelling intellectual Empathy and communicating care. International Journal of TESOL Studies, 3 , 51-70. https://doi.org/10.58304/ijts.20230305

Soriano, R. M., & Co, A. G. (2022, March). Voices from within: Students’ lived experiences on English language anxiety. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 11 (1), 449-58. http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v11i1.21898

Teo, C. (2023). Beyond academic grades: Reflections on my care for university students’ holistic development in Singapore. International Journal of TESOL Studies, 5 (3), 71-83. https://doi.org/10.58304/ijts.20230306

Wong, J. (2023a, March 29). When angels fall: The plight of an ambitious educator. Teaching Connections: Advancing Discussions about Teaching . Retrieved from https://blog.nus.edu.sg/teachingconnections/2023/03/29/when-angels-fall-the-plight-of-an-ambitious-educator/

Wong, J. (2023b). What completes an excellent teacher? Care in higher education English language teaching. International Journal of TESOL Studies2, 5 (3), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.58304/ijts.20230301

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Fall 2024 Courses

Fall 2024 writing courses.

WRTG 10600: Academic Writing I

This introductory writing course teaches academic writing as a craft that includes multiple genres and technologies. Students locate, evaluate, and integrate information into projects that see them forming and supporting their own arguments and positions. Academic writing as a craft is anchored in rhetorical situations of audience, context, purpose, language, and image. It is also an ethical practice that grapples with questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The course therefore enables students to enter academic, civic, and professional conversations with rhetorical awareness. (F,S,Y) Attributes: 3A, HU 4 Credits

WRTG 16400: Writing for Professional Success

Introduces students to the rhetorical awareness, social conventions, and writing habits necessary to succeed in complex and diverse academic, professional, and media settings. Engages with the foundational elements of communication, preparedness, cultural competency, personal organization, and resiliency. Course materials will provide students the tools and opportunity to discover new professional interests and to turn their interests into actionable goals. (F,S,Y) 4 Credits

WRTG 17500: Introduction to Creative Writing

This class offers a hands-on exploration of what creative writing is and why we write it. Students experiment with genres of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry while also challenging the boundaries of genre. Students analyze strategies used by other writers from a diverse range of cultural experiences and reflect on how creative writing engages identity in intentional ways that unveil systems of power. (F,S,Y) Attributes: 3A, CA, FA, HM, MC, TIDE, TIII 4 Credits

WRTG 20500: Personal Essay 

Introduction to writing essays in which students explore their own memories, experiences, observations, perspectives, and identities. Emphasis is placed on self-interrogation and inquiry, as well as craft techniques such as narration, description, reflection, and analysis. Course material will provide examples of the personal essay form and help students examine the insights and limitations of personal experience as they consider the self within the context of the larger world. Prerequisites: ICSM10800 , ICSM 11800, or WRTG10600 . (F,S,Y) Attributes: 3A, CA, HM, HU, TIDE, WRCW, WRRC 4 Credits

WRTG 21300: Technical Writing

Fundamentals for communicating technical, medical, and scientific information to general and specialized audiences. Class emphasizes the foundations of technical writing, their formats and applications, context-specific writing strategies, basic visual design, and ethics. Some reading in and discussion of the history of technology and its influence on human society and culture. Prerequisites: ICSM10800 , ICSM 11800, or WRTG10600 . (F,E) Attributes: ESTS, HU, WI, WRPW 4 Credits

WRTG 21800: Writing Center Pedagogy

Theory and practice of tutoring in writing centers. Required for students who have been hired to work in the Writing Center. 1 credit.

WRTG 21100: Writing for the Workplace

Basic on-the-job writing necessary to join, manage, and promote any organization, whether profit or nonprofit. Focus is primarily on short forms: résumés, memos, business letters, summaries, brochures, newsletters, press releases, informal proposals, and reports. Course also explores how various social, economic, and ethical issues affect workplace writing. Prerequisites: ICSM10800 , ICSM 11800, or WRTG10600 . (F,S,Y) Attributes: ESTS, HU, WI, WRPW 4 Credits

WRTG 23600: Fiction Writing I  

Students study and practice strategies of writing fiction, developing skills of process including conception, planning, drafting, reflection, and revision. Students analyze and discuss fiction from a diverse range of cultural experiences. Prerequisites: WRTG17500 . (F,S,Y) Attributes: 3A, FA, WRCW 4 Credits

WRTG 23800: Poetry Writing I 

A combination reading and practice course in which students will develop poetic strategies, encounter diverse contemporary lyric writing, and practice writing poetry to reflect a range of forms and modes within the genre. Attention will also be focused on how the choices we make as writers of poetry might shape what the reader experiences. Analysis of published models of poetry and student writing will lead to work in revision and culminate in a portfolio of revised pieces. Prerequisites: WRTG17500 . (F,S,Y) Attributes: 3A, FA, WRCW 4 Credits

WRTG 25200: Sophomore Internship

Work and study project designed by the student early in undergraduate career, in consultation with a faculty sponsor and a practicing professional. The H&S internship proposal includes learning objectives, a detailed work plan, and a description of the student's plans for reports to the faculty sponsor. May be repeated up to 3 cr total. Offered on demand only. Prerequisites: Two WRTG courses. (F,S,U,Y) 1-3 Credits

WRTG 34300: Editing and Publishing

An advanced course that prepares students for careers in writing, editing, and publishing through instruction and experiential learning. It focuses on the role of book publishers in both print and digital cultures as well as literary journals and consumer magazines. Students look at the responsibilities of editors, agents, and copyeditors. Assignments include both individual and collaborative editing and publishing projects. The class features visits from professionals in publishing and possible field trips.  3 Credits

WRTG 38000: Visiting Writers' Workshop

An advanced writing workshop offered each semester to coincide with the Department of Writing Distinguished Visiting Writers series. Requires 15 contact hours in meetings, conferences, and classes with both the visiting writer and the writing faculty coordinator. Students produce a 15-page revised manuscript of new work in the relevant genre over the course of the semester. May be repeated up to three times for credit. Prerequisites: Junior standing; permission of instructor. (F-S,Y) Attributes: UND 1 Credit

WRTG 41500: Senior Seminar

Small group setting for students to undertake focused, intensive exploration and research of ideas and issues in writing within selected advanced topics not provided elsewhere in the curriculum. Provides opportunity for advanced coursework that nurtures serious investigation of specific issues within their discipline, and fosters intellectual dialogue about writing among students. Seminar topics vary each semester. Satisfies the ICC Capstone requirement. Permission of instructor required. Prerequisites: Two WRTG courses, at least one of which must be at 300-level. (F,S,Y) Attributes: WI 4 Credits

WRTG 45000: Internship

Work and study project designed by the student, in consultation with a faculty sponsor and a practicing professional. The proposal includes learning objectives, a detailed work plan, and a description of the student's plans for reports to the faculty sponsor. Prerequisites: Junior standing; three writing courses above level 1. Offered on demand only. May be repeated up to twelve credits. (F-S,Y)

When the landfill site is closed, discharge water filtration and clarification equipment is installed, the territory is covered with specific material and backfilled. Then many tubes used to purify gas are installed. The greatest danger in landfill restoration is the groundwater contamination. In and around Moscow there are a few dozens of waste deposits, some of which are growing higher than multistoried residential houses standing nearby.

During my work on the project, I visited 7 landfills in Moscow and the Moscow region. Some objects were guarded, and it was so absurd that the guards actually guarded a heap of rubbish.

While in these landfills, I saw that the liquid produced by the rotting waste flows out of the pipes sticking out on the slopes into the nearby rivers. Working on this project I wanted to show the rubbish not in the way everyone is used to see it. What is seen in front of our eyes is hilly landscapes, hiding million tons of consumer waste — a typical view of the contemporary system. We do not always see what is hidden.

Nikita Zhirkov

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An Overview of the IELTS

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About the city of Moscow

There are test locations in Moscow offered and certified by British Council. The test fee specified for the exam locations above is indicative and can vary depending on test date, test location and test type. Please visit the test location website for most recent information.

Make sure to prepare for the IELTS exam . Make sure you will get a good score on your test by selecting an English language program. Choose a top language school that can advance you to your intended English level and start your IELTS preparation course .

There are several standardised English tests that you can take to proof your English level, such as the PTE (Pearson Test of English), TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), CAE (Cambridge Advanced English) and IELTS (International English Language Testing System), offered by British Council and IDP. IELTS is the most popular of these tests, with British Council offering more than 1000 test locations and being accepted by more than 11,500 organisations world-wide.

Universities in Moscow that accept the IELTS test

Moscow state technical university of civil aviation, international banking institute, moscow state institute of international relations, russian presidential academy of national economy and public administration, rudn university, national research university - higher school of economics (hse), lomonosov moscow state university (msu), new economic school (nes), national university of science and technology (misis), moscow university touro - international school of business and management, 10 most popular study destinations for students in russia.

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8. Switzerland

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10. Austria

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