Reflective Essay

[3littlefrogs]

Does anyone have any advice on how to go about writing a "reflective essay" as part of a degree course?

I can't really get my head around it. Part of me feels it would be boring for the reader to have to wade through stuff about me. How do I know what is relevant? It is very subjective and TBH I just don't know how/where to start.

Usually I am fine about writing up reports, projects, research etc, but this has me stumped.

No title - I have to start right from scratch. It is supposed to be about learning, personal development etc. I suppose it could be interesting, but OTOH it could potentially be dire.

I am really not good at writing personal stuff about my achievements, never mind my failures.

Of necessity I will have to write about other people - I don't want to sound patronising or judgemental, or - even worse - creepy.

Tis giving me a headache.

Can you ask your tutors for guidance? I never did this enough when I was at uni; if I ever go back to studying I'll def make the most of them! Good luck!

I guess I will send in some ideas and see what the feedback is. I am struggling with this course, as my workload, and consequently my stress level, has rocketed recently and I have to keep deferring. I have lost confidence in my ability to cope with an academic course at my age, and am wondering if I should give up TBH. Yet I got very good feedback from my first assignment.

I just feel a bit out of touch really.

Thank you both for responding BTW

Aww 3LF I'm sorry to hear your confidence is low at the moment - what subject(s) are you studying and how long have you been doing your course?

Re: the reflective essay, I think it's more for your own benefit than your tutor's, so use it as an opportunity to reflect on your own learning process, including the lack of confidence. Didn't they give you any guidance for the assignment at all??

Clinical research, ethics, evidence based practice in nursing and costing/investment and related arguments topics.

I know I just have to sort my domestic committments out - (A levels finish on Friday thank goodness), catch up with my work related deadlines, and then go back to the drawing board. As I keep telling my children "self motivation is key". I think I just need to rediscover some motivation for myself .

I had to do something similair called an apl for my degree. It was the hardest thing i did i failed it first time as i didn't actually put what i had learnt from my experiences rather than just detailing them. We did get a book to guide us through it a bit though. Can your tutor offer more guidance ?

A book??? (clutches at straws). Was this a book available to the public, or supplied by your tutor?

I have to do one of these (am supposed to be doing it right now.... What I have learned from the experience of writing it so far: really think about what you HAVE learned (and of course a bit of what you know they want to hear), then identify the bits where it happened and write about them, how being with other people and listening to other viewpoints helped clarify/change etc your own and how jolly useful all the feedback etc was, how within classes, course work etc you had to apply a practical use of the theoretical ethics (make up some dilemmas if you didn't have any). How your thoughts and clinical practice evolve over the course of the course (iyswim). It's perfectly acceptable to say "I" and can be a good idea to base your intro around how alien you found the concept at first so isn't the course good because it's made you realise the need and be able to do it and given you the tools yadda yadda. Mind you, I've got four fifths of mine left to do...

Supplied by tutor, not sure whether it would be relevant to you or not but basically it breaks down how to analye an incident.

I basically started off with a two page summary of my 'life' detailing work/family/hopes for future etc.

Then i itemised each thing that had been a 'critical incident' in my life i'e a job / dealing with family issues.

This was then broken down again context of incident
detailed descrition of what hppened
why it was critical to me and what i learnt from it
what skills i used / learnt
reflection of what took place, analysis of it
include evidence to support it

incident - reflection- generalising experience-how would you apply it to new situation

Basically go overboard on the skills you used/learnt etc what you would have done differently etc.

Hope this helps

This really helps - thank you.