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Theme 1.4

How to get started

with reflective

writing

Many of you will have done some reflective

writing already on your course; for others this will

be a new and different kind of writing. Reflective

writing is generally more personal, and much

of what you write in a research journal will be

written in the first person. When I was struggling

to write the methodology chapter of my doctoral

thesis (I found out later that many students find

this difficult), one of the most helpful things that

an experienced supervisor said to me was ‘Tell

me the story of your research; what you did

and why, and what you didn’t do and why not’.

Immediately the task felt doable, and I began to

speak and write much more freely. Much of what

I said and wrote was in the first person, because

it was about my study. We know that it is rare for

a research project to go completely to plan and

that robust research considers issues of subjectivity.

This means that being aware of our feelings during

the ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ of the process and any

assumptions we might be making will be important

aspects of being critically reflective.

Many students who are new to reflective

writing need to know how to start, and Bolton

and Delderfield’s (2018) guidance on this is

invaluable. In it they encourage us at various

points to do what they call ‘the six minute write’

and give us these pointers:

• Write whatever comes into your head.

• Don’t worry about the order of what

you write.

• Time yourself and write for six minutes

without stopping.

• Don’t stop to examine what you have written.

• Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation,

grammar and so on. You can correct this

later if you need to.

• Give yourself permission to write anything.

• Remember, whatever you write, it can’t be

wrong – it’s yours and it’s private; no one

else needs to read it.

When I have asked students to do a ‘six minute

write’ as part of a session, I usually receive a

range of responses in return. Some find it easy

and are surprised by how much they can write in

six minutes. Others struggle and ‘dry up’ before

six minutes is over. However, most appreciate

that it helps to get them started in the reflective

writing process. Keeping going is important, and

many find that it gets easier with practice.