Reflective blog assignment
anmisha reddy
Week7-ReflectiveBlogsHeadingsandVisuals.pptxReflective Writing
Why Reflective Writing?
You may be asked to complete a reflective writing assignment:
To examine your learning processes: what you have learned and how you have learned
To make connections: between what you already know and what you are learning; between theory and practice; between course material and personal experiences.
To clarify your understanding – identifying the questions you have, and what you have yet to learn.
Source: http://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=180720&chapterid=463
Why Reflective Writing?
To think carefully about what you are doing, how you are doing it, and why you are doing it.
To learn from mistakes and lessons: avoid repeating mistakes and identify successful principles and strategies to use again.
To become an active learner: engage in the learning process by asking questions, raising doubts, and thinking critically about one's own ideas.
To encourage you to become a reflective practitioner in your future field. This is the key to life-long learning, growth and meaningful change.
Source: http://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=180720&chapterid=463
Types of Reflective Writing
Reflective writing assignments may include:
Journal or diary entries
Portfolios
Narratives
Reflections on practice or placements
Blogs
Reflective writing may also be part of assessments such as:
Online discussion forums
Group work and group or peer evaluations
Types of reflection
Getting to the bottom of what is happening in the experiencer’s processes, decision-making and feelings at the time of the event or interaction.
Example: Journal
Sifting over a previous event to take into account new information or theoretical perspectives available in conjunction with the experiencer’s processes, feelings and actions.
Example: Reflective Essay
Preparing to Write Reflectively
Description
What is article about?
Analysis
What sense can you make of the information?
Conclusion
How can you apply this information?
Action Plan
What action will you take because of this information?
Feelings
What were you thinking and feeling?
Evaluation
What was good and bad about the information?
Article Summaries
In a short paragraph or two, briefly summarize the article’s main point and outline the supporting details the author makes to support the main point.
When summarizing an article, do not relay evidence/facts; instead, generalize the points the author makes and use transitional words/expressions to indicate the number.
Do not insert any opinions in summarizing an article; you are simply presenting the main point and supporting points.
Main Idea
SUMMARY
Supporting Details
Article Summaries
The main idea of the article is conveyed clearly and concisely
The summary is written in the unique style of the writer
The summary is much shorter than the original document
The summary explains all of the important notions and arguments
The summary condenses a lot of information into a small space
Kearney, V. (2019, April 10). How to write a summary of an article. Owlcation. Retrieved from https://owlcation.com/academia/How-to-Write-a-Summary
How to Summarize
Basic Organization of Reflective Writing
Introduction
Restate you main point
Should reflect your individual viewpoint
Do not describe unrelated events
Reflection essays are personal and subjective, but they must still maintain a somewhat academic tone and be thoroughly and cohesively organized like any other essay.
What the essay is about (broad)
What exactly the essay focuses on (specific)
Why it is important to analyze this
Body
What?
What ideas are presented?
Who was involved?
So what?
What is most important/relevant aspect of the event/idea/situation?
How can it be explained?
How is it similar to/different from others?
Now what?
What have I learned?
How can it be applied in the future?
Conclusion
Using Evidence in Reflective Writing
You are aiming to draw out the links between theory and practice. You will need to keep comparing the two and exploring the relationship between them.
There are two sources of evidence which need to be used in reflective writing assignments:
Your reflections form essential evidence of your experiences. Keep notes on your reflections and the developments that have occurred during the process.
Academic evidence from published case studies and theories to show how your ideas and practices have developed in the context of the relevant academic literature.
Using Evidence in Reflective Writing
Analyze the event and think about it with reference to a particular theory or academic evidence.
Are your observations consistent with the theory, models or published academic evidence?
How can the theories help you to interpret your experience?
Also consider how your experience in practice helps you to understand the theories.
Does it seem to bear out what the theories have predicted? Or is it quite different? If so, can you identify why it's different?
Language in Reflective Writing
A large part of reflective writing is based on your own experience, so appropriate to use the first person ('I'). However, most assignments containing reflective writing will also include academic writing. You are therefore likely to need to write both in the first person ("I felt…") and in the third person ("Smith (2009) proposes that …").
Produce a balance by weaving together sections of 'I thought… 'I felt,…' and the relevant academic theories.
When writing about your reflections use the past tense as you are referring to a particular moment (I felt…). When referring to theory use the present tense as the ideas are still current (Smith proposes that...).
BLOGS
What are Blogs?
A blog is a special kind of web page, usually managed by one person or a small team., with date-stamped entries in reverse chorological order.
A blog typically represents one topical and timely content area or takes the form of a personal diary. It allows for more social interaction, engagement, and feedback than static technologies through the posting of visitor comments in response to the blog entries.
Blogs contain pictures, words, and sometimes additional links to other sources related to the blog entry’s content.
What is a blog?
Blog Components
Logo/name to identify the blog
Recent updates at the top, with time and date of publication
Comments
Information about the writer, or the blog’s purpose
Blog Components
Archives of recent posts, often sorted
by month and year
Archives sorted by topic (category)
Syndication via RSS or Atom Web
feed formats
Blogs read or recommended by the blogger
Information about the blogging tool
How to Start Writing
Headings and Illustrations
Headings
Headings guide readers through the text. On their own, headings provide an outline or overview, Different heading levels can show which parts of the report belong together and the relative importance of each one.
Headings do the following:
Break up text into meaningful segments
Make information easier to find
Create breathing spaces where readers can pause to collect and absorb their thoughts
Headings
Functional headings (Primary Headings)
Functional headings are basic, generic headings (Executive Summary, Marketing Plan, Operational Plan,…etc.) that can be used in almost any report. They provide useful lead-offs to sensitive information.
Executive Summary
Operational Plan
Descriptive or “talking heads” (Secondary Headings)
Descriptive/talking heads are high-information headings that reflect the actual content of a report, summarizing its key points, telling the reader what to expect, and making the report easy to skim.
Headings
Keep headings short and clear
Limit headings to eight words
Use parallel structure
Use balanced phrases and grammatical structures
Under a single main heading, subheads must be parallel to each other buy not necessarily parallel to subheads listed under other main headings
Headings
Ensure headings are clearly ranked
Format headings consistently depending on what they introduce
Once you have chosen a style for each heading level, stick with it all the way through the report
Headings
Put headings where they belong
Don’t use subheading unless you plan to divide the material that follows into at least two subsections
Unless a heading or subheading will be followed by at least two lines of text at the bottom of a page, type it at the top of the next page
Don’t enclose headings in quotation marks
Bold type and capitalization are enough to distinguish a heading from a surrounding text
Don’t use heading as the antecedent for a pronoun
The line of text after the heading/subheading should not begin with this, that, these, or those alone because the reader may not know what you are referring to
Using Graphics
Visual aids are designed not just to support the words you use but also to replace words altogether.
Visualizations reflect the analysis of data and point out the patterns and relationship you have found through your observations and information.
They make numerical information meaningful to readers.
Above all, they clarify and simplify complex data.
Graphics Guidelines
Make sure there is a good reason to include the graphic
Place visuals where they make sense
place the visual after you have introduced it
if there isn’t enough space on the page, place it immediately on the next page
place large visuals that will not fit on a full page in an appendix
Graphics Guidelines
Ensure visuals are
clearly titled and labelled
uncluttered and easy to understand
accurate and ethical – cite the source if you have “borrowed” it
The caption for tables is placed above the table; for figures and other types of illustrations, the caption is placed below the image.
Visual Example
Provides a caption with a label, title, and citation. Caption is placed below the figure.
The figure is referred to/discussed in the paragraph before its appearance.
Figure is large enough to read and has a title.
Graphics Example
Tables
Tables consolidate a lot of data in a small space while retaining detail. They are useful for drawing attention to specific numbers and drawing comparisons between them.
Designing tables:
should fit on one page
apply headings that include the table number and appropriate title/caption; appears above the table
label all parts clearly and identify units
improve readability of long tables by utilizing shading of alternate lines
use n/a, …., or -, to acknowledge missing data
Table Example
Table 1: Foreign Exchange Cross Rates
Matrix
A matrix is a word table that contains qualitative information rather than numerical data.
Matrices are used in reports and proposals to list instructional materials and consolidate complex information in a page or less.
Matrix Example
Table 2: Aggressive-Growth Portfolio Balanced Funds
Pie Charts
Pie charts measure an area, showing different values as proportions of the whole. They are most useful for comparing one segment to the whole.
Each wedge/slice represents a different percentage and the whole circle must equal 100 percent for the pie char tot make sense.
Wedges are sequenced clockwise in progressively smaller slices. The pie slices (roughly 4-8) are given visual separation by distinctive colour, shading, texture, or cross-hatching.
Pie Chart Example
Figure 1: Asset Allocation for Personal Finance
Bar Charts
The purpose of a bar chart is to show how items compare with one another, how they compare over time, or what the relationship is between or among them.
Bar charts present data in a series of bars or columns, drawn horizontally (long labels) or vertically (short labels). The higher or longer the bar, the greater the value it represents.
Bars have different meanings depending on their colour or shading, which also helps to distinguish them from the background.
Bar Charts
Arranged in logical or chronological order, bars can be segmented, divided, or stacked to show how the components of each add up.
A divided bar chart can be used to present complex quantitative information.
Deviation bar charts identify positive and negative values, such as year-by-year losses and gains of a dividend fund.
The data in all varieties of bar charts should be properly scaled to fill the entire chart and not just squeezed into one corner. All bars should be the same width and close enough together to make comparisons easy.
Bar Chart Examples
Figure 2: Mortgage Income Funding
Figure 3: Fuel Prices by Country
Crediting Sources
If you use an image from the internet, it is best to cite the source in the caption.
Provide the in-text citation for the image in the caption
List the reference for the image on the reference page
Consult your Cites & Sources or other online resources for how to properly document these sources
You do not credit images you create; only credit those you “borrow” from a source.
Basic Structure:
Author/Photographer. (date). Photo title [type of image]. Retrieval statement.
