Reflective Writing For Students

Reflective writing is a tool for lifelong learning that helps you process what you’ve learned, why it matters, and how to use those insights moving forward.

Why Reflective Writing?

Experts in every field practice reflective writing daily. This means that you will too! Watch this video to understand why reflective writing is important to your education.

What is reflective writing?

Reflective writing helps you slow down and transfer what you’ve learned to future contexts. Instead of just completing tasks or assignments and moving on, reflective writing invites you to think critically about what happened: what went well, what could have gone better, and how you responded etc. Most importantly, reflective writing helps you connect what you’ve learned to your future, whether in school, your personal life, or your career.

Benefits

Builds habits of self-awareness and intentional growth beyond the classroom.
Helps you recognize patterns in how you learn, make decisions, and solve problems.
Strengthens your ability to learn from both success and failure.
Fosters resilience by teaching you to intentionally reflect, adapt, and move forward.
Encourages lifelong curiosity by helping you ask deeper questions about your experiences.

Helps you connect ideas across courses, disciplines, and real-world experiences.
Reinforces learning by encouraging you to apply concepts in new or unexpected contexts.
Makes abstract theories more practical by linking them to real-life situations.
Encourages flexible thinking that supports problem-solving in diverse environments.

Builds communication skills by teaching you to express insights clearly and professionally.
Prepares you for interviews by helping you articulate growth, challenges, and achievements.
Encourages goal-setting and self-evaluation, key traits in professional development.
Develops a mindset of continuous improvement that employers value.

Think of what you want to be after you graduate. Maybe you’re aiming for a career in medicine, tech, education, or entrepreneurship. What ever your path, your time in college is more than a checklist of assignments; it’s a training ground for who you’re becoming. Reflective writing helps you make every class, project, and challenge count by encouraging you to learn from each experience. When you take time to reflect, you intentionally turn everyday tasks into stepping stones for long-term growth. But that only happens if you’re willing to engage, ask questions, and see each moment as something worth analyzing and learning from.

STUDENT EXAMPLES

What Does it Look Like?

Humanities Example

Assignment: Make a 5-minute presentation about BYU’s founder, Brigham Young. Give a brief description of his life and then mostly focus on how he started BYU. Upon finishing your presentation, follow the reflective writing model and write about your experience making and presenting these slides.

I enjoy making presentations, so I liked being able to get creative on this assignment. It was also easy to find pictures and background info on Brigham Young. It was challenging, however, to narrow down information on his life in only a few slides. I also get nervous presenting in front of people, so I struggled preparing to present. This project taught me new things about Brigham Young and myself. I felt more connected to my university by learning about the founder and I learned new things about his life that I did not know before. I also learned that even when I am nervous about presenting, I can still do a good job. Several of my peers told me after class that my presentation was great, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear that even though I felt nervous the whole time. If I were to do this project again, I would ask my professor for clarification on how to narrow down information before I start working on the project. In the future, I plan to use the newfound confidence I gained from presenting in my other classes and job opportunities.

STEM Example

Assignment:
1- What did you learn about biology, Utah history, writing, and recreation management?
2- What did you learn about your relationships to yourself, others, the environment, and God?

Biology Excerpt:
“The balance between humans and their environments seems natural and intuitive when viewed from the perspective of biology. The lesson about New Century plants surviving in the desert taught me about evolution as well as a more efficient approach to personal life: It’s not about being the best; it’s about being good enough to survive in a harsh environment. Although this approach seems primitive and pessimistic, it has worked for millennia and can help me when I feel inadequate, overwhelmed, or stressed. This is why it is significant for me, even though I’m an English major. There are countless ways that biology can connect me to the essence of life and teach me about my humanity, as well as stress relief strategies. Carrying around a field notebook and being ever-ready to write, record, identify, and investigate taught me and increased awareness and a heightened sense of wonder which I never would have received from the classroom.”

History Example

Assignment: Make a 5-minute presentation about BYU’s founder, Brigham Young. Give a brief description of his life and then focus on how he started BYU. Upon finishing your presentation, follow the reflective writing model and write about your experience making and presenting these slides.

Reflection Excerpt:
“I enjoy making presentations, so I liked being able to get creative on this assignment. It was also easy to find pictures and background info on Brigham Young. It was challenging, however, to narrow down information on his life in only a few slides. I also get nervous presenting in front of people, so I struggled preparing to present. This project taught me new things about Brigham Young and myself. I felt more connected to my university by learning about the founder and I learned new things about his life that I did not know before. I also learned that even when I am nervous about presenting, I can still do a good job. Several of my peers told me after class that my presentation was great, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear that even though I felt nervous the whole time. If I were to do this project again, I would ask my professor for clarification on how to narrow down information before I start working on the project. In the future, I plan to use the newfound confidence I gained from presenting in my other classes and job opportunities.”

Reflective Writing Tips

When writing a reflective writing assignment, always look back on the reflective writing and make sure you are covering all three parts:

What?
So what?
Now what?

Additional Tips:

Don’t try to sound smart— try to be honest.

Reflective writing isn’t about academic jargon. It’s about expressing your real thoughts, questions, struggles, and growth. Start where you are.

Start with: ‘At first I thought… then I realized…’

This sentence stem works in nearly any reflection. It shows movement from one stage of understanding to another—exactly what reflection is about.

Connect it to something else.

Good reflections build bridges—between what you learned and something else: another class, an experience, your faith, a future goal.

Talk to yourself on paper.

Imagine you’re explaining the experience to your future self. What would you want to remember? What surprised you? What would you do differently?

Messy is okay. First reflections aren’t final thoughts.

You don’t need to write a polished essay. Reflective writing is thinking in progress. Your tone can be casual and exploratory.

End with a takeaway.

Even if your reflection feels uncertain, close with a next step or a lingering question.

Frame: “Going forward, I want to…” or “Next time, I’ll try…”