Learning Journal
About the Journal
In this class you will be submitting Journal entries. These are short, reflective writing responses to selected topics that correspond with the unit. Your Journal entry should be a minimum of 200–250 words, or about half a page, and may be written in the first person. Feel free to write more than 200–250 words; however, the maximum word limit allowed for Journal entries is 500 words.
What is Reflective Writing?
Before you begin your Journal Assignment, please read this helpful information on Reflective Writing. For more information, visit Kaplan’s Writing Center, accessible through the student portal.
Reflective writing occurs when you analyze and write about what you have learned or experienced through an interaction of some sort, an event, or an observation. It could also be your analysis of a passing thought or emotion. Reflective writing can provide insight and help you internalize the information you are learning and reflecting upon.
Reflective writing can be both personal and academic. You can conduct reflective writing in a Journal at night to look back on the day’s events. You might sometimes ask yourself what you could have done differently during the day or how you could have handled a situation better. This personal reflection can help you grow because you are learning through your reflection.
You can also use reflective writing as a learning tool to go over what you have read and then examine what you have learned from it. After reading a chapter in a book, you can briefly analyze what you learned, thus, you internalize the information. Also, after taking a class, you can write a reflective essay on the material that you covered and how it will apply to your future career.
The biggest pitfall of reflective writing is to simply describing what happened. It is important to remember that you need to discuss what you learned from the experience, be it personal or academic.
The most important thing you need to remember before you attempt reflective writing is to make sure you fully understand the material you are reflecting upon. If you are confused or unsure what the material meant, you need to go back and reread it until you fully grasp the subject. It is extremely difficult to give your thoughts on a topic that you do not understand.
Kaplan University Writing Center. (2011).Writing a reflective essay. https://kucampus.kaplan.edu/MyStudies/-AcademicSupportCenter/WritingCenter/-WritingReferenceLibrary/WritingTypesAndTools-/WritingAReflectiveEssay.aspx
When you start your reflection, you can ask yourself some, or all, of the following questions, depending on what you are writing about:
What information will I reflect on?
Why is this information important to me?
What did I find interesting?
What was uninteresting?
What was the author trying to say?
What are the conclusions that I came to after reading it?
Will I be affected by what I learned? In what ways?
Would I have changed anything?
These questions will help you dig deep into the material, which allows you to examine different aspects of it.
In reflective academic writing, you most likely will refer to outside sources for support. Sources can be used to strengthen your personal observations and reflections. When writing your reflective essay, you want to make sure to relate back to the information, and do not focus on just your opinions or feelings. You need to use specific and convincing examples to support your claims. You want to make insightful connections.
Do not forget that reflective writing is still academic writing in the classroom. Grammar and spelling is important. Careful proofreading should be done, multiple times if possible.
Also, make sure to use varied sentence structure, be aware of your audience and purpose, and use an appropriate tone. You should also demonstrate control of topic specific terms and language.
Please go to the Poetry Foundation website.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/
Type into the search area: Poetry Program Gives Prisoners Unexpected Voice.
View the news story about Richard Shelton’s work with prisoners in a poetry workshop.
Take notes as you watch this story, and then consider the discussion of creativity in Unit 1, and this week’s Discussion and reading material regarding literature. What do you think of using poetry as a tool to change these prisoners? What is your assessment of poet Richard Shelton’s message regarding the use of creativity to create a better life, on in these cases, to deal with emotions and the consequences of their crimes? Provide your response in 200–250 words.
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