What is reflective writing?
• Reflective writing is evidence of reflective thinking. In this reflective thinking, you will look back
at an idea, concept, or theory learned in the course and see its relevance to analyze one of your
unforgettable personal experiences in the past or a contemporary social issue that you have been
interested in. You will analyze the experience or the issue that you choose, thinking in depth and
from an enlightened perspective. You will try to explain it in relation to a Buddhist concept, model
or theory discussed in the course. You will think carefully about what the idea, concept, model or
theory means for you and your ongoing progress as a learner.
• Reflective writing is more personal than other kinds of academic writing. We all think reflectively
in everyday life, but perhaps not to the same depth as that is expected in a good piece of reflective
writing at university level. Reflective writing can be unstructured, for example when it is done in a
personal diary. What is expected for this assignment is a carefully structured writing.
A possible structure for reflective writing
Reflective writing can be broken down into three parts:
• Description: What happened? What is being examined?
• Interpretation: What is most important / interesting / useful / relevant about the object, event, issue
or idea? How can it be explained in relation to the Buddhist concept or theory?
• Outcome: What have I learned from this? What does this mean for my future?
This is just one way of structuring a reflective writing. There are other ways. What is important is your own
creativity. Whichever approach to reflection you use, try to bear in mind that reflection is an exploration
and an explanation of events—not just a description of them; that reflective writing involves ‘revealing’
anxieties, errors, and weaknesses, as well as strengths and successes, together with showing your
understanding of possible causes, and explaining how you plan to improve; and that it is necessary to select just the most significant parts of the event or idea on which you are reflecting for if you try to ‘tell the whole
story’, you are likely to use up your words on description rather than interpretation.
Grading
The grade for the reflective writing assignments will be decided based on creativity, clarity and
organization of the presentation, accuracy in explaining or interpreting the Buddhist theory or
concept, depth in reflection, and application of the concept to review and improve your personal
life. References to sources outside the class lectures/lecture notes are not required.
Expectations:
There are samples of past reflective writing in the following attachments as well as course content that needs to be included in the work. I would need someone confident that they can do this piece of writing without plagiarism and use of AI.
