Journal Writing Experience

Friday 26th October 2012

My reflective journal is going well so far. I have never been one for keeping a diary but it really does help express feelings and reminders of events. I have previously had to do a reflective journal for my Art Foundation course which was a similar process. Writing what I had achieved, what needed work and what I had actually produced and how I felt about it. It is nice to keep up to date with everything.. being such a keen photographer, I tend to capture moments with photographs. Every time I look back on them I am reminded of the event and the emotions, the smells etc that came with it.

I have tried a few various ways of writing but still want to try more as there may be a method unknown to me that works best out of them all. I have used and tested the following:

Description
I tend to use this way of writing quite often. I am quite good at writing everything down and can ramble a little too much! Being quite a visual learner, I describe exactly what happened, who was there and any parts of the event that stood out to me. I picture the event and write what I see. After this I normally move on to..

Initial Reflection
Having described the event I will always add how I felt about it, whether it be positive or negative and looking back, how it could have been made better or what I can do in the future to create the same response or a more positive one. I integrate my reflective thought processes within an entry. It may just be singular words or I may go into depth if there were a particular moment to focus on.

Evaluation and What If
These two I tend to mix in with Description and Initial Reflection. They all come together as one, I express how I felt about what was happening and how I would change it in the future etc. As I said, I can be one to ramble so I think reeling off my thoughts on everything in one helps me to get everything out as it comes to mind.

Lists
I'm an extremely organised person and would be lost without lists. I use them for 'things to do', 'things to pack in my suitcase' and general reminders. I remember at Elmhurst, being at a boarding school, I would always be writing lists of things I wanted to tell my parents on the phone. Any special events or feelings, it would sometimes be plain or boring but knew they would be interested. Without writing it all down, I'd forget certain points. Again, like my initial reflection, my list varies. Some points are singular words such as 'busy' and 'alert' where as with others, I go further. For example in my entry from Friday 19th October, when I was doing work experience at a local Primary School, I have written the following:

"Happy - a child told me today that they wished I were their teacher and that I should come back after half term. I must be doing something right here, it is so great to be getting a positive response. Another child told me they would miss me. Seeing that I've made the children happy and helped them for the week makes me happy too and has allowed me to realise that this is something I would love to do - working with others.. even 5 and 6 year olds!"

Graphs, charts and diagrams
Sometimes, the artist in me comes out to play and I will add a diagram to my writing. Never any charts or graphs but images and drawings. I feel they help me to explain what it is that I am saying and can put things into perspective. The drawings are quick and sketchy but even if they're only for me to see and understand, I can relate to them and I enjoy doing them. Here is an example of a very quick one I did after thinking about how tiny we all are within the Universe...

 (Not to scale... obviously!)

I shall continue to work with various methods, I still need to think about writing from someone/something else's perspective. I should imagine this would be strange, however it will allow me to look at things from another angle and not get too wrapped up in my own emotions!