Guidance for Scholarship Reflective Writing
This document has been written to help those people who apply for Scholarship Awards.
One of the stipulations of such awards is that the applicant write a report detailing what they have learnt and how they may add value to others in return for sponsorship by the NZWCS.
The purpose of such a report is three-fold:
- To record the development of your ideas and insights and the possible implications for your practice.
- To reflect on the content of the experience and on your own learning.
- To identify and discuss your responses to concepts, ideas and issues in either course work, reading or in practical placement.
The report is typically written for yourself and is intended to provide insight into your thinking. Success depends on a demonstration of these insights into the course content, or the topics discussed at a conference and describes your developing awareness of the interconnectedness of different aspects of experience and the interrelationships between ideas.
The report is best influenced by:
- The Topic: This is not a summary of the curriculum or programme. It is a response to an aspect of a course, readings, practical placement or conference etc. It focuses on a particular aspect of the subject content and its potential application to theory and practice.
- Format: There are no formal requirements unless it is a diary in which case dates are useful. But it usually traces the development of ideas, insights and learning. It can be written without headings, but it is always wise to separate ideas into paragraphs to suit the purpose of different ideas contained in different paragraphs. The NZWCS prefers to see the report as taking no more than 500 words, i.e. a page of writing only.
- Style: It is best to write in standard English using paragraphs and sentences. Abbreviations should not be used unless they have been expressed in full, earlier in the text. Unlike scientific writing, you can use the first person “I” if you would like and it can be subjective to reflect your speculations and interpretations.
Hopefully, this will help you complete the report more easily and know that when it is published in the Tissue Issue it is a useful record of your ongoing experience in your continuing professional development.
EAG 2022
