Writing for Reflection

Reviewer: GM van de Water

Evernote is an uncluttered and user-friendly note-taking application for recording notes,

writing English texts due to cultural and thinking patterns that contrast with those of the

thoughts and reflections, which can be organised into notebooks and tagged with

native speakers (Xing 2014, p. 856). A reflective learning journal is an effective solution to

keywords. There are no technical barriers to incorporating this application in a classroom

this problem in that it assists learners in developing metacognition by bringing particular

context in that no specialist knowledge is required and it runs on any device. Figure 1

writing problems to the foreground. This awareness can lead to effective problem-solving

below shows the interface, which is self-explanatory with tools on the left, a navigation

strategies and so the learner can progress to the next step in the writing process. To gain

panel in the middle, and an input section on the right. Although the free version of

maximum benefit from a learning journal, students need assistance in developing

Evernote is predominantly meant for private musings, notes can be shared via email and

reflection skills. To this end, teachers should write clear reflective prompts, provide

social media.

models, give formative feedback and encourage discussions on the learning process

(Allan & Driscoll 2014, p. 49).

Evernote can be used to develop a reflective learning journal, which has many advantages
over a hand-written diary. A digital journal streamlines the reflective journey in that

notes can be filed and organised into categories and can easily be retrieved or
reorganised. This software can be used to improve writing skills especially by dedicating
the learning journal to the writing process. It should be implemented in tandem with

References:
Allan, EG & Driscoll, DL 2014, The three-fold benefit of reflective writing: Improving
program assessment, student learning, and faculty professional development, Assessing
Writing, vol. 21, pp. 37 55.

another writing project, such an essay or case study, and focus on the separate steps
involved in writing from brainstorming to form analysis; from drafting to peer review;
from editing to publication.
Writing is a challenging task for non-native speakers because of insufficient knowledge of
formal and linguistic schemata characteristic of the target language. An empirical study of

Chinese ELLs found that they experienced difficulty in

Xing, J 2014, An Empirical Study of Applying Email Exchange to College English Learners
Writing, Journal of Language Teaching and Research, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 856 864.

Fig. 1: This screenshot shows the Evernote interface with the toolbox on the left, a
navigation panel in the centre and an input area on the right. The application also has
basic word processing features. Evernote, accessed 31 March 2015, URL:
https://evernote.com/.