Writing is a means of puzzling through what is happening in our work and our personal lives
(Boud 2001: 11)
As part of my MA in User Experience (UX) Design at Falmouth University, we’re asked to compile a weekly Critical Reflective Journal (CRJ). While I’ve journaled in the past and enjoy writing (a lot), I’ve never kept a CRJ, or really explored the concept of critical reflective writing in proper detail.
So, I decided to write myself a Q&A to establish what a CRJ is, why it’s a good idea to keep one, and how I might go about keeping mine. Hopefully, you might find it useful too.
What is a CRJ?
According to the MA course guidelines, I should use my CRJ to document the progress of my practical work and contextual research. It should also serve as a space to discuss and reflect more generally upon my academic and professional practice. This includes:
Discussing how I understand the theories, concepts, and challenge activities that I engage with each week, referencing all relevant (academic) materials and readings
Reflecting on what I learn from my peers and tutors, and considering how their feedback may alter or inform my own opinions, and
Thinking about obstacles and blockers I encounter and what am I doing to overcome and learn from them for my future practice
In simple terms, a CRJ is a space where I can reflect on and evaluate my learning experiences.
While a journal can be seen as “a form of self-expression, a record of events, or a form of therapy” (Boud 2010: 9) (all of which I've used journals for in the past), a CRJ goes a step beyond purely recording or describing events and actions. Instead, a CRJ should capture “how you experienced what happened,” serving as a space “to reflect on your experience and to apply the learning from your reflection to your life” (Ballentine Dykes et al 2017: 239). It is therefore about extracting meaning and learning lessons, rather than pure recollection of facts.
A CRJ can be used to make links and connections between the things we have already experienced in our lives and the new things we experience by reading, doing, observing, listening, watching, and generally going out into and exploring the world. We can then consider what we think and how we feel about these connections, and how they might inform our thinking and decisions in the future. Do we agree? Do we disagree? Are we confused? Does something feel off? Have our previous assumptions been challenged?
Framed like this, there are no right or wrong answers when it comes to our own reflections, provided we evaluate and analyse them before making judgments. By thinking in this way, we can “arrive at a deeper, more complex understanding of a phenomenon” (Chittooran 2015: 80).
I want to make sure that my own CRJ entries go deeper than surface-level descriptions, thinking critically about how my learning ties to my own goals and ambitions, how the things I’m reading link to or differ from each other, and how I feel about these similarities and discrepancies.
What are the benefits of keeping a CRJ?
Studies have shown that CRJs and similar journaling techniques can be beneficial for various reasons.
By encouraging openness, curiosity, patience, honesty, transparency, and rigorous analysis, critical reflective writing can “change how we think about things, what we do and how we do it, and can lead to specific changes in planning for what we do next” (Williams 2012: 3). This allows us to learn from any mistakes or obstacles we might encounter throughout our practice, transforming these into opportunities for learning and growth. As is often the case, Don Norman says it best: “To fail is to learn: we learn more from our failures than from our successes” (2013: 64). Arguably, though, we can only learn effectively if we take the time to reflect, critically analyse what went wrong, and make plans for how we’ll try doing things differently next time. Being active in our learning is key.
Interestingly, CRJs can be particularly effective in helping professions like nursing and counselling. For example, Riley-Doucet and Wilson researched the effectiveness of self-reflection using reflective journal writing in the training and education of nursing students. They found that reflective practice allowed students to “be creative in identifying personal learning needs and designing learning experiences” (1997: 965).
The idea of ‘designing’ my own learning experience interests me in particular. I want to use my CRJ to explore areas and topics that interest me on a personal and professional level within the field of UX. Despite being a little daunted by the vast amounts of information, books, and journals out there, I’m also looking forward to being proactive in selecting reading materials that are both informative and that I find enjoyable to help me address my own learning needs.
Who reads the CRJ?
The audience of a CRJ is very much dependent on the context in which you’re keeping it. It could be a public document that anyone can read. It could be a private document only available to select people to whom you’ve granted access. It could be for your eyes only. As Boud attests, “sometimes we write primarily for ourselves, sometimes for others” (2001: 9).
One idea I had while reading up on critical reflective writing was to treat my CRJ as an opportunity to practice what’s arguably the key tenet of UX – always put the user’s needs front and centre.
In this case, my main ‘users’ fall into a couple of categories. On the one hand, my users are my coursemates, my tutors, and anyone else who happens to come across my blog (likely, but not definitely, people with an interest in UX). On the other hand, I myself am my user, as my CRJ is my space to step back and think about my personal learning journey.
Because my CRJ needs to serve as a basis for my end of module assignment, I need to keep the assessment criteria in mind as I complete it, to meet my tutor's need to assess how well I have understood and engaged with the module material (including the practice of critical reflective writing itself). With any luck, this should put me in a good position to do well in my assignment and to subsequently apply what I’ve learned both to the rest of the course and to my professional UX practice.
However, I also want my CRJ to be interesting and accessible to people who aren’t necessarily as familiar with UX as my peers and tutors on the course. I want it to reflect me and my own style of communication, and to be a place where I feel I can be and express myself.
Boud claims that “one of the main inhibitors [in CRJ writing] is the prospect of others’ reading one’s journal. [...] The expectation of writing for an external audience can profoundly shape what we write and even what we allow ourselves to consider." I agree with this, and have always been very protective of my journals in the past. However, because my CRJ is primarily a tool for my learning and therefore will serve me well in my own practice if I can fully embrace it, I want to make a conscious and active effort to be as honest and open as possible.
How should the CRJ be written? Is there a particular tone/voice/style?
Perhaps what appeals to me most about the concept of a CRJ is the fact that “you and your thinking [should be] visible in your writing” (Williams 2012: 14). The writing style doesn’t need to be as formal as traditional academic papers. Indeed, as Williams asserts, “keeping your ‘voice’ in all your writing is key to good writing, and especially in reflective writing” (ibid: 28).
Another of Williams’ (ibid: 27) passages captures my own feelings about my writing so accurately, it’s worth repeating here in full:
Students sometimes feel that, under the weight of all the reading they have to do – commenting on what this writer said and how it’s different from that writer’s opinion – their own voice isn’t right, or isn't good enough. Wrong. It’s always you who’s writing, not a machine or some ideal-type student, and your reader wants a sense of who you are – particularly in reflective writing.
Inspired by this, I decided to craft a voice for my CRJ and overall website based on UX content strategist Torrey Podmajersky’s ‘voice chart’ concept: “a set of decision-making rules and creative guidance to make [...] UX content align with the needs of [...] the person using the experience” (2019: 18):
These guidelines, though quite basic for now, give me a clear frame of reference for the kind of voice I'm trying to write with, and which can be adapted for different contexts.
When should the CRJ be kept?
The time of reflection itself can vary, and brings with it different advantages. For example, we can reflect while going about our day-to-day lives – a technique described by Schön as “refelction-in-action” (cited in Boud 2001: 11). Equally though, we can reflect “away from the press of immediate action [...] this type of reflection may occur driving home at the end of the day, in the bathtub, or when discussing with colleagues or friends what we do” (ibid).
The reference to the bathtub made me smile, as it feels particularly pertinent to me – my entire blog is developed around the idea of learning about, and in doing so, reflecting on, 'UX in the bath'. While I hadn’t thought of this as being a space specifically for ‘critical reflection’, looking back, I can see that this is in fact exactly what I've been doing – reading, pondering how what I’ve read resonates with my experiences to date, evaluating how my learning impacts the way I had been thinking up to that point, and, as appropriate, considering how I might apply my new understandings to my UX (writing) practice. It’s a comforting thought (though rest assured, I don’t type up my CRJ in the actual bath…).
What will I keep in mind in particular when I am completing my CRJ throughout the course?
A few things I'd like to try and keep in mind when I'm writing my CRJ entries…
Since I am still very new to the field of UX at this stage, I want to approach everything I read and experience with an open mind, thinking critically about what I read rather than simply taking other people’s words as gospel
I want to continually be thinking about how I can relate my studies back to my current work and future career and academic aspirations
I want to enjoy the process of learning, and I want to judiciously select what I do and don’t read based on what resonates with me or which topics I want to engage more or less deeply with
I want to keep practising my writing skills and developing a voice that resonates with people, is genuine, and that makes me happy
References
BALLENTINE DYKES, Fiona, Traci Postings, Alexis De Winter and Anthony Crouch. 2017. Counselling Skills and Studies. 2nd Edition. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
BOUD, David. 2001. ‘Using Journal Writing to Enhance Reflective Practice.’ New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 2001(90), 9.
CHITTOORAN, Mary M. 2015. ‘Reading and Writing for Critical Reflective Thinking’. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2015(143), 79-95.
NORMAN, DON. 2013. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books.
PODMAJERSKY, Torrey. 2019. Strategic Writing for UX. California: O’Reilly Media, Inc
RILEY-DOUCHET, Cheryl and Sharon Wilson. 1997. ‘A three-step method of self-reflection using reflective journal writing’. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 25(5), 964-968.
WILLIAMS, Kate. 2012. Reflective Writing. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
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