Writing Studio Personal and Reflective Writing

Editing for truth

You will revise a personal piece so that it is true to your experience, fair to the people in it, and as clear as you can make it.

Do this first

Highlight every sentence that states something about another person: what they said, did, thought or meant. Next to each, write “know” or “guess”. Rewrite each guess as your perception (“I thought she was angry”).

Steps

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Check the facts you can check
Dates, places, names, quotations and the order of events can often be checked against emails, photos, records or other people's memories. Memory is reconstructive, so even confident memories can be wrong.
Signal memory and inference
Where you cannot check, say so: “as I remember it”, “I think she said”, “I assumed”. Reconstructed dialogue is accepted in memoir when it is faithful to what was said; inventing events or merging people without telling the reader is not.
Test fairness to others
Read each passage about another person as if they were reading it. Check whether you show them as a whole person, and whether any detail exposes them without serving the piece. Change or remove identifying details where the point survives without them.
Cut what protects your image
Find sentences that make you look better than you were or over-explain your reasons. Cut the defensive clauses and keep the admission.
Edit assessed reflections for evidence
Every claim of learning needs an example: “I improved my handovers” needs what you did differently and how you know it worked. Check that theory is cited correctly in the required style.
Then edit for clarity
Only now tighten the sentences: cut filler such as “I feel that” and “in terms of”, vary sentence length, and read aloud. Check the word limit, required headings and referencing style last.

Templates

Truth audit

Claim: [sentence from the draft]
Type: [fact I can check / memory / inference about someone else]
Check: [email, photo, record, person asked, not checkable]
Decision: [keep / mark as memory / reframe as my perception / cut]

Phrases for honest uncertainty

As I remember it, [event].
I may have the details wrong, but I am sure that [what you are certain of].
I assumed [assumption]; I never found out whether [what remains unknown].
I have changed [names / places / details] to protect [whose] privacy.

Evidence for a claim of learning

Claim: I [learned / improved / now understand] [what].
Evidence: When [later situation], I [did something differently].
Result: [what happened, or feedback received].
Supporting source: [Author (Year)], who argues [point].

Check your draft

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Every quotation is either checked or clearly presented as remembered.
Guesses about other people's thoughts are framed as my perception.
Every identifying detail about another person is needed for the piece.
In a professional reflection, no patient, client, student or colleague can be identified.
No events, people or timelines are invented or merged without telling the reader.
Each claim of learning is backed by a concrete example.
I have cut sentences whose only job is to make me look good.
The piece meets the word limit, required structure and referencing style.

In your field

Check that technical details in a reflection (values, procedures, software versions) are accurate, because a factual slip undermines the whole account. Edit for concision and clear cause and effect.

Common mistakes

Presenting a reconstructed conversation as a word-for-word record without signalling it.
Merging two people or two events into one without telling the reader.
Leaving in a detail that identifies a patient, client or student.
Polishing sentences before checking whether the content is true and fair.
Claiming learning without any example of changed behaviour.

Go further

Purdue OWL: Sub-genres of creative nonfictionExplains why memoir must stay grounded in lived experience, using the James Frey case as a warning.
Benefits of becoming a reflective practitioner (joint statement, UK health and care regulators)Advises that recorded reflections be anonymised and focused on learning rather than identifiable details.
The Art of Memoir, by Mary KarrCandid discussion of memory, truth and the temptation to embellish, from a leading memoirist.
On Writing Well, by William ZinsserClassic guide to cutting clutter, with a chapter on writing about yourself.