Reflective writing or metacognitive writing allows the writer to focus on the audience and finding potential issues with your writing process. It’s critical how the motives of the writer towards the audience are, and how we need to focus on our work to ensure that we express the message that we want to tell. By using this approach writers will improve their writing by remembering their mistakes and thinking about how they can improve in the future. This will help writers to gain more insight and control over the revision process.

Reflective writing has opened my eyes to my strengths and weaknesses. In high school, I wasn’t taught this skill and because of that I didn’t structure my writing pieces correctly. I didn’t understand what I was doing and I wasn’t meeting the criteria the teacher required. My writing process used to be just making one draft and improving the grammar. I was focusing on the body paragraphs and ignoring the introduction and conclusion. This made my the focus of my writing piece confusing to others. I was focused too much on the body instead I should have focused on it as a whole. During my first semester in college, I was taught this skill and it stuck with me as I progressed throughout college. My last English teacher taught me have to structure my writing correctly and he helped me fix my drafts. This skill has helped me perfect my writing and organize my thoughts correctly. My paper doesn’t have to be perfect during the first draft but I should do my best to work my way up to that level.

Before I start writing, I brainstorm ideas and then organize them in according to essay format. I put together the reasons and the details I am going to use. Then I start the introduction with a question to pull the readers attention and then I put the introduce the topic. I put the body together with details matching the reasons. Afterwards, I summarize the entire piece in the conclusion. Finally, I reread the draft to see what needs to be improved and what needs to be deleted.