Reflective and Report writing with Katherine Tomlin

These two session have been very useful to refresh my knowledge on Reflective Writing (which I gained throughout year 4) and to better understand what Report Writing means.

First of all Katherine, (who we met last year during similar seminar) gave us a recap on what there is to know about Reflective Writing. She talked us through the difference between writing a journal/diary and writing a blog. The right answer is the audience, the people who have to read your reflections. On the first hand, a diary is usually something that is personal and therefore the only person who can judge it is yourself. On the other end, a blog is a reflection that is made for the public to read so the content needs to be clear and easy to understand. Reflecting means to analyse on a deeper level something that happened in the past in a more objective way. Reflecting Writing helps you to take a step back over your action and to improve from your mistakes. Also, it is very important to come up with positive and negative reflections. Being aware of your mistakes is the only way to correct them in a future.

Afterwards, she helped us to better understand what Report Writing means. A report is more formal than a journal and that is what we will have to come up with for our other module "Design In Practice". For this module we have to write a report in which we explain step by step everything we are currently working on. This will have to include our reflections and thoughts on the three major project we are working on and of the placements we will be having later on this trimester. Through this report we will have to convey all the skills and techniques needed to successfully succeed on this module. To help us reflect more on our future achievements Katherine handed out some useful exercises. These consisted in a series of questions that we had to answer and then discuss as a group. For instance, one of the questions asked was; what you might take away from the work placements? Most of our answers were very different from each other however what we all agreed on was being able to gain new skills, getting to know a huge variety of people and their different roles, gaining a wider knowledge of the industry and last but not least time management skills.

Another activity we were asked to do was to fill in the gaps to determine which statements are features of a Report and what of an Essay. This activity made me realise how little I actually knew about Report writing. For instance, a report can contain images and charts and it is usually structured in a way that is divided into well-defined sections. Also, an essential feature of a Report is that it is fact-based and about your own findings.