Ten Tips for Reflective Writing

1. Focus on creative decisions informed by institutional knowledge (you did what you did partly because of what you had learned about how the media produce, distribute and share material).
2. Focus on creative decisions informed by theoretical understanding (you know that you did what you did because of having a point of view in relation to media and meaning, and you can describe that in relation to cultural media theories).
3. Evaluate the process - don't just describe it (why some things worked well and others not so well).
4. Relate your media to 'real media' at the micro-level (give clear, specific examples of how you used techniques and strategies to create intertextual references to media you have been influenced by).
5. Try to deconstruct yourself (don't ever think of your own tastes, decisions, preferences, behaviour as just being 'the ways things are'; instead, try to analyse the reasons for these things - it is tough to do this but worth the effort).
6. Choose clearly relevant micro examples to relate to macro reflective themes i.e. genre, audience, narrative, representation and media language (you can't write about everything you did, so be prepared with a 'menu' of examples to adapt to the needs of the reflective task).
7. Avoid binary oppositions (your media products will not either follow or challenge existing conventions; they will probably do a bit of both).
8. Try to write about your broader media culture (don't just limit your writing to your OCR production pieces, but try to extend your response to include other creative work or other media-related activities you have been engaged in).
9. Adopt a metadiscourse (step outside of just describing your activities as a media studies student to reflect, if possible, on the 'conditions of possibility' for the subject and your role within it - what kind of an activity is making a video for media studies compared to making a video as a self-employed media producer?
10. Quote, paraphrase, reference (reflective writing about production is still academic writing, so remain within this mode of address)


Reference: OCR Media Studies for A2: Third Edition by Julian McDougall, Published by Hodder Education. 2009.