Last updated: 2026-10-06

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Undergraduate level

Reflective Writing

Reflective writing is the part of a project report that asks what you learned from doing it, and what you would do differently. Many students find it the hardest section to write, because it feels personal and because it is not obvious what counts as an answer. Assessors tend to look for a specific account of an experience, a reasoned judgement about it, and a plan that follows from the judgement.keep a log of decisions, not just outcomes

This page covers what reflective writing is for, how it differs from the analysis elsewhere in the report, a structure that makes it easier to write, and how to keep the evidence for it while the project runs.

What Reflection Is For

The University of Reading's guidance on styles of writing describes reflective writing as building on analysis by examining the learning you have gained from practical experience. It is often more personal than other kinds of academic writing, and it can use the first person and draw on your own experiences as evidence. Its focus is on future improvements, and the question it answers is "what next?"[1].

That last point matters. A reflection that describes the past and stops has done half the job. The value lies in the change it produces in what you do next, in this project or the next one.the loop: act, reflect, plan

How It Differs From Analysis

Analysis in the rest of the report asks why the result is what it is. Reflection asks why your approach produced it, what you assumed, and what you would change. A results section might say that the method failed on a particular class of input. The reflection would say that you chose the method without testing it on that class, that you had assumed the class was rare, and that you would now check the assumption in the first week.turns raw output into a learning loop

The two sections should not repeat each other. If you find yourself restating a result in the reflection, cut it and keep the part about your own decision.

A Structure That Helps

Kolb's model of experiential learning describes learning as a cycle of four stages: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, and active experimentation[2]. The model is a useful checklist, because a reflection that skips a stage tends to be weak in a predictable way.

  1. Concrete experience. Describe one specific episode: a decision, a setback, a conversation, a result that surprised you. Specific episodes are more convincing than general patterns.
  2. Reflective observation. Look at what happened, how you responded, and how you felt about it. Be specific about your part in it, not only about what went wrong around you.
  3. Abstract conceptualisation. Draw a conclusion. What does this episode suggest about how you work, or about the problem? This is where your reasoning should be visible, and where links to the literature or to course material belong.
  4. Active experimentation. State what you will do differently, how you will know whether it worked, and when you will check.
End on the next action. A reflection that finishes with a specific, checkable change in behaviour reads as a learned lesson. One that finishes with a general resolution to "do better" does not.

Keeping the Evidence

Reflection written from memory at the end of a project is thin. The better source is a record kept while the project runs. A learning log, with a short dated entry after each significant decision or setback, gives you concrete episodes to choose from. The approach is described in Keeping a Learning Log, and a template is available as Learning Log Template.

The discovery log described in Project Navigation and the Art of Triangulation serves the same purpose for the project's direction. Entries that changed the plan are often the best starting points for reflection, because they record a decision and its reasons at the time.

Common Problems

  • Describing feelings without describing actions. "I felt frustrated" is a starting point. The reflection needs to say what you did with the frustration, and what came of it.
  • Blaming the circumstances. Deadlines, data, and supervisors all matter. A reflection that lists them and does not mention your own choices will not be credible.
  • Confessing without concluding. A candid account of a mistake needs a judgement about it. What did the mistake reveal about your assumptions?
  • Writing about learning in general. The reflection should be about what you learned in this project, with examples.

Uncertainty as Material

Much of what a project teaches comes from the points where the plan did not hold. The uncertainty that caused the change is worth describing in the reflection, not as an excuse but as evidence of how you responded. The argument that failure, conflict, and changing frames all provide information is developed in Navigating Uncertainty.

References

  1. University of Reading. (n.d.). Descriptive, analytical and reflective writing. Academic writing guides, LibGuides. https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/writing/stylesofwriting
  2. Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Prentice-Hall.