WRITING A REFLECTION
BASIC CONTENT
ANALYSIS
WHAT? HOW?
POSITIVE and NEGATIVE aspects of the experience
What are you going to reflect about? Expressing feelings and thoughts: What can you make of it?
Classroom dynamics
Specific activities or tasks How did you feel? Did you enjoy it?
Working with specific vocabulary
Projects What did you think? Do you think it was a useful experience?
Orals
Using technology Did you learn anything new?
Team work
A complete unit
Final reflection of a semester or the whole course
USEFUL PHRASES AND EXPRESSIONS FOR WRITING REFLECTIONS
Linking words:
To express sequence: first – to start with – then – after this/afterwards - Finally/Lastly
To add information: and – also – in addition – besides – not only...but also
To show similarity: similarly - like – in a similar way – equally - likewise
To express result: So – then - As a result – Consequently – therefore – thus
To express reason: because – since – due to – that is why
To give examples: for example, e.g., such as – for instance
To clarify/explain: in other words – that is to say – i.e. – to put in another way
To show contrast: but - However – although - on the other hand – in contrast
To conclude: in short – briefly - to summarise - to sum up – in conclusion
Expressing personal opinion:
In my opinion/view...
I believe/do not believe that... (because)... I firmly believe that...
To my mind...
Personally I feel that... (as)... I tend to think that...
To my way of thinking...
It seems to me that... I fully support...
I am convinced that...
This is because... As far as I am concerned...
The way I see it…
WHAT?
I found this unit/task/project very…
The task/oral/project is/was about…
I am going to write / reflect about…
This reflection is about…
In this unit I…
I particularly liked / enjoyed the…
Useful adjectives
valuable / beneficial / not beneficial useful / productive / useless / pointless simple / complex
interesting / fun / boring stimulating / exciting / motivating easy / difficult / hard
helpful / unhelpful attractive / uninteresting / tedious / dull necessary / unnecessary
good / bad practical / impractical creative / innovative / repetitive
dynamic / slow relaxing / stressful clear / unclear / confusing
HOW?
o I was…
o I felt…
o I thought..
o It was…
Useful adjectives
fine / well worried / reassured
nervous / anxious / calm confident / assertive / assured / insecure
stressed / tense focused / confused
bored / interested / satisfied / entertained motivated / driven / unmotivated
happy / glad / pleased / sad / unhappy relieved / delighted / thrilled
Previously, felt (did not feel)
At the time, knew (did not know)
At first, noticed (did not notice)
I
Initially, questioned (did not question)
Subsequently, realised (did not realise)
Later, thought (did not think)
ANALYSIS
Expressing advantages and disadvantages
One advantage/disadvantage of
The main advantage/difficulty of
Another valuable issue/limitation of
The greatest benefit/shortcoming of
One other benefit/drawback of
The first strength/weakness of
A further positive/negative aspect of
my skills in..
developed my understanding of…
I have
improved my knowledge of…
my ability to…
analysed… feel…
applied… know…
discussed… question…
Having I now
experienced… realise…
learned… think…
read… wonder
This knowledge is essential
To me in the future because…
This understanding could be important
To me in the workplace because…
This skill will be useful
event/s
aspect/s
ideas/s
was / were
meaningful experience/s
important issue/s
For me, the (most) significant activities
relevant happened when…
useful resulted from…
learning arose from…
began after…
became relevant for…
This means that…
This makes me feel…
As a next step, I need to...
This knowledge is essential
This understanding could be useful to me because…
This skill will be important
did not…
have not yet…
am not yet certain about…
Since I to me because…
am not yet confident about…
do not yet know…
do not yet understand…
From: [Link]
Concluding
Let me recap/recapitulate my point ...
As a final word, let me summarize my point of view ...
My final thought is ...
It all boils down to ...
In a nutshell, what I am trying to say is ...
To sum up, ...
Finally, ...