CAES2202

What is Reflective Writing?

Reflection is probably something that you do unconsciously anyway as a part of the learning process. However, writing it down can help you to more clearly acknowledge the kinds of ideas and feelings that you have been experiencing and the knowledge and self awareness that you have gained during your learning process. By doing this you can recognize that you have learnt sometimes unexpected things, or that you need to learn something else that maybe you had not considered before.

You may be expected to write reflectively in your future as a part of a university course, an internship experience or a professional review.

Guidelines for Reflections on your Career Exposure Day (CED):

Content: A record of what you have done and learnt as part of your in-class and outside-of-class activities working towards your CED project, the actual day and the post CED tasks. However, description should only provide the context for reflection and the reflective parts of your writing are more important than the descriptive parts. You need to write a reflective piece which will allow you to think about and demonstrate your learning in a deeper way. You will share your experience, think about your strengths and weaknesses, evaluate your own English language skills and think about paths for future learning. The reflections should include:

• Reflections on what happened before, during and after the CED
• Reflections on any changes in your perception of your target career and your suitability and/or desire for it.
• Reflections on the use of English in the workplace in Hong Kong and your own needs for improvement in English communication skills for the workplace.

Communication and audience: This is academic reflective writing so language accuracy still applies. Check spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Organisation: Use of paragraphs and linking devices are expected to make your writing coherent and cohesive.

Guiding Questions:

Reflections on what happened before the CED:

• How did you decide on which career to explore/
• How did you contact your work-shadow host?  Were any difficulties in the Process?
• What did you learn from this process?

Reflections on what happened during the CED?

• Did you enjoy your day – why or why not?
• What did you learn about that particular profession on that day?
• Was there anything that was unexpected/surprising?
• How much English was used in the workplace that you visited?
• What did you learn on that day – about yourself, about other people, about the profession you want to explore?

Reflections after the CED?

• After the Career Exposure Day, do you still want to enter the profession?
• Did the day strengthen or weaken your intention to enter that profession?
• How do you need to prepare/equip yourself further in order to enter that profession?

Reflections on the use of English in the workplace in Hong Kong and your own needs for improvement in English communication skills for the workplace.

• How much/what kind of English was used in this workplace?
• Do you think this is typical?
• Can you see any areas of strength/weakness in your own proficiency?
• How do you plan to address this?

Your Reflective writing is NOT:

• Simply a description of what was taught to you on the course
• A simple conveyance of information about your CED project (a description of what you did is not good enough, although some description will be needed to provide the scaffolding for reflection)
• A personal diary (do not write about everything that is happening in your life – only what is related to the CED  – your reflective writing on this course has a purpose – you are writing for yourself but also for your teacher who will be assessing it)
• An evaluation the course or the teacher (reflection is about YOU!)
• Telling the teacher what you think he/she want to hear (genuine analysis and reflection is needed and is easy for the teacher to recognize –everybody’s experience will be unique)
• Simply self-criticism (you need to go beyond identifying a weakness or failure and examine your feelings about your experiences and the reasons and possible solutions to your problems)

The portfolio

The portfolio, which you will submit by the end of the semester, represents the culmination of your experience and learning on the course. In general, your portfolio should demonstrate your ability to compile a learning portfolio which is professionally presented and offers a coherent and complete set of documents relevant to your learning experience. Compiling the portfolio will help you to reflect and provide scaffolding and evidence for your reflection. It will include the following parts:

• a cover page and index to provide coherence
• a portfolio introduction to introduce all the items in your portfolio
• your resume (including draft with teacher’s comments)
• the request email or letter which you used to make contact with your host
• your contact record form
• your confirmation letter (including draft with teacher’s comments)
• your thank you letter
• your employer’s (host’s) evaluation form
• your PowerPoint slides from your presentation
• your reflection on your learning experience in this course.

Cover page/Index:

The cover page should include your name, student number, course code and course name, a heading etc.

The index should list all the items in the portfolio and the corresponding page number

Portfolio Introduction (1 page):

• give background information on the learning experience (i.e., the process of preparing various documents and arranging the Career Exposure Day, and/or the portfolio preparation)
• introduce various items in your portfolio

write in accurate English (focus on correct sentence structure, tenses, spelling and agreement, use precise, appropriate vocabulary)

Present your portfolio in a professional manner by using a good quality plastic binder/folder ( a bunch of papers stapled together does not give a good impression).

Professional portfolios are an increasingly common way of presenting information on projects or on your own career.

Congratulations on completing the Career Exposure Project! We hope that what you have learned will be valuable in your future job searches. Don’t forget that the Careers Education and Placement Centre staff are always ready to help you.