Academic Writing
Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Describing feelings
Introduction
Often, for example in reflective writing, it is necessary to describe your feelings about something.
Based on Kolb’s work on refection, Gibbs (1988, p. 47) suggests the following stages to encourage deeper reflection:
Description: | What happened? What are you going to reflect on? Don’t make judgements yet or try to draw conclusions. |
Feelings: | What were your reactions and feelings? |
Evaluation: | What was good or bad about the experience? Make value judgements. |
Analysis: | What sense can you make of the situation? Bring in ideas from outside the experience to help you. What was really going on? |
Conclusions(general): | What can be concluded, in a general sense, from these experiences and the analyses you have undertaken? |
Conclusions(specific): | What can be concluded about your own specific, unique, personal situation or ways of working? |
Personal action plans: | What are you going to do differently in this type of situation next time? What steps are you going to take on the basis of what you have learnt? |
See: Writing Functions 40: Reflecting
Language
Reflective writing should include both descriptions, feelings, analysis and thoughts about what you have experienced.
Unlike other academic writing, reflective writing is usually written in the first person and should definitely include your thoughts, feelings and opinions e.g. “I read the handout before the lecture. This is often recommended. I was therefore well-prepared for the lecture and understood it well. I was happy with that. I will continue to read the handouts before the lecture”.
Some useful language is:
Feelings
Describe how you felt.
I felt (very) pleased with … It wasn’t very nice. I didn’t like … I (really) hated … |
+ ▲ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ▼ – |
On the one hand, … |
Example
Read this example. Can you recognise the sections and language identified above.
Feelings
I was very worried before the presentation. I was afraid that I would not be able to say the right things and that I would not be able to represent our progress adequately. I had done one or two oral presentations before but had never been very satisfied with them. |
Key:
Feelings