Introduction to Reflection

Our learning experiences inside and outside the classroom help shape our academic identities, but in order to truly grow, we must carefully and genuinely reflect on these experiences. Thinking critically about strengths and weaknesses, chronicling ongoing successes and challenges, and setting clear goals for improvement based on prior learning are vital skills for all writers.

As many of you saw in WRIT 101, our primary means of reflection is the edblogs Commonplace Book—a repository for daily writes, weekly and unit reflections, and end-of-semester epilogue posts. The Commonplace Book is a digital space in which you collect and organize specific thoughts about your continuing development as readers, writers, thinkers, and learners. It’s important to remember, however, that reflections may not always be written; audio and video recordings—whether done individually or framed as collaborative conversations—can also be fruitful modes for reflection.