A woman writes in a paper diary with a pen. Even if it is not immediately obvious from the description, many of the academic assignments you will need to complete contain some form of reflection. You might be asked to write an essay where you respond to a piece of text or an image, relate a topic to your own experiences or discuss whether a certain model fits with your own views. Reflection can also be useful when constructing an academic argument as you will have to think about how all the evidence fits with your own understanding of a topic. Being able to reflect on something is also an important part of critical thinking and writing as it allows you to question arguments made in the literature, be open minded about different approaches and move towards being constructive in your criticism. With any of these assignments it's important to remember not to include too much description and focus on what you are being asked to do. The assessor will understand what the object you are looking at is and they don't need it described to them. They want to know what you think about it, how it relates to your experiences and how this advances your knowledge of a topic.

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.

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