BA3 CLASS READING - THE FIVE STAGES OF REFLECTIVE WRITING - this reading is extracts (...) from the set text.
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1. THE SIX-MINUTE WRITE 

Choose a comfortable uninterrupted place and time ... 

Starting with six minutes’ writing can help prevent the dither of ‘What am I going to write? by dumping mind-clutter onto the paper. Some of this writing will be useful … springing from seemingly nowhere, some only shopping lists or scurrilous moans. Stow all safely on paper and the mind is free to continue. Awareness of anything other than the hand putting words on the paper can inhibit the flow, so allow the writing to follow its own track and leave obeying writing rules (grammar, logical sequencing, and so on) until later... 


  • Write whatever is in your head, uncensored.

  • Write without stopping for at least six minutes.

  • Don’t stop to think or be critical, however disconnected it might seem.

  • Allow it to flow with no thought for spelling, grammar, proper form.

  • Give yourself permission to write anything. You do not even have to reread it.

  • Whatever you write will be right: it is yours, and anyway no one else need read it... 

  • 'I always do my 6 minutes, but then I screw it up and throw it away without reading it.' 

2. THE STORY 


A story of experience next...


Write straight away about any time in your experience, telling the story simply and allowing it to come in its own order. Focusing on a particular occasion, chosen seemingly at random, is facilitative to reflection. Try to choose the first event which occurs, without striving for significance. The most vital issue might be located or clarified by the seemingly mundane... 


  • Write with a focus...

  • Choose the first event which comes to mind...

  • Allow 20-40 minutes to write...

  • Re-create the situation as memory gives it...

  • Consider it fiction...

  • Do not worry about spelling, grammar, syntax...

  • Proper form does not matter...

  • Allow reactions, emotional responses, feelings... 

3. READ AND RESPOND 


Reading writing back to yourself is significant … reading is then like a dialogue with the self, hearing what the hand had to say, and being able to respond back to it, Reflexive interpretive thoughts might be written in response, re reading undertaken privately, slowly and respectfully, with responses noted, gives insight...



  • Read with attention yet openly, non-judgementally, looking at content rather than form...

  • Be aware of underlying links...

  • Write additions, alterations, make deletions...

  • Fill out with as much detail as possible ... 

4. SHARING YOUR WRITING WITH A PEER(S)


Peers responses can open up fresh avenues. They can support towards deeper levels of reflection … Seeking just the right person or people can be worthwhile. E-contact can be a good substitute … A colleague might be right, but they or life-partner might be wrong: emotionally charged relationships may add non-useful complexities...


Choose a colleague or fellow student with whom to share writing


  • Be positive and supportive...

  • Comment on writing, not writer...

  • Consider everything read and discussed as confidential... 

5. DEVELOPING THE WRITING 


You can’t write the wrong thing. Whatever you write will be right - for you... 


Here are some developmental ideas...


If you wrote the initial story in the present, try rewriting it in the past, or vica versa


Rewrite the story with the gender of the main character switched


Write the next chapter


Retell the story with a different ending or focus, or in a different style...


What themes or patterns relate to others in your life?


What is missed out of this story?...


Continue the story six months/a year later...


Explore the area which puzzles you... (Bolton, 2010, pp.107-117).
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REFERENCE

Bolton, G. (2010) Reflective practice: writing and professional development. 3rd edn. London: Sage.