5 Rhetorical Reflection
Overview
In this chapter, you’ll consider why and how reflection is important for your journey as a learner and communicator. You’ll learn that reflection is built into many teaching and learning practices, and has deep roots in both the rhetorical tradition and the Jesuit tradition.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter, you’ll be able to:
- Describe the importance of reflection in Jesuit education and developing metacognitive awareness
- Reflect on the role reflection has played in your own lifelong learning
- Apply effective reflective practices that help you improve your writing, speaking, and listening processes
Student Voices: Learning to Reflect
Reflection is one of the fundamental principles of learning about yourself and the world. Coming from a different cultural background and having learned how to communicate in Italian, I felt a little insecure about my capabilities when I started my academic journey in the U.S. This happened because of the different learning modalities I learned from the Italian academic system. These differences are deeply visible in higher education. In Italy, I focused on reading, listening, and repetition of concepts. In the U.S., I’ve noticed I’m able to retain more due to discussions and interactive modalities of teaching. Discussions and reflections, both in and outside of class, helped me revisit the concepts I’ve learned and memorize them. This modality helped me understand concepts faster and showed me a new way of compartmentalizing and connecting knowledge.
–Francesca Casaccia, 2025
Francesca is a graduate student in USF’s Master of Arts in Professional Communication (MAPC) program.
I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.
–Joan Didion
Reflection is a key component of the rhetorical process because it helps develop metacognitive awareness: an understanding of what you are doing, why, and how the skills you’re learning might apply in different situations (Price-Mitchell). Reflection is a major element of critical thinking, the scientific method, research, art and self-expression, and really any kind of writing, speaking, learning, or creating process.
It’s also a key part of Jesuit teaching and the Jesuit tradition. Former USF president, Paul Fitzgerald, put it this way: without reflection, life is just “one damn thing after another” (USFCA Rhetoric). In other words, reflection helps to answer big questions like: “why did this happen?” and “what does it mean?” It’s what helps the past make sense — what worked, what didn’t, and what to take with you to new experiences and situations.
To think more about the role of reflection in the Jesuit tradition, and its value for students entering college for the first time, watch the following video, part of a series on Jesuit values at USF.
Watch: “Reflection and Discernment” at USF (~2 mins)
To learn more about the relationship between learning and reflective writing, watch the short video below.
Watch: “Reflective Writing” (~6 mins)
Reflection
- Why is it important to minimize pure description in reflective writing and instead focus on analysis?
- What role does hindsight play in reflective writing, and how can it be both frustrating and empowering?
- Reflect on a time when you gained more knowledge after an event. How did this hindsight change your perspective or approach to future situations? Did you write about it? How might writing have enriched or deepened your learning?
Applying Reflective Writing Practices:
As you embark on your own reflective journey and are assigned to submit reflective writing as part of your class, consider the following questions and suggestions:
Consider multiple dimensions of time
Look back on the past: What has gone well in your speaking, writing, and composing in moments before this class? Why? What needs work? Why?
Look at the present ― in the specific moment of a learning experience in this class: What delivery, revision, and expansion choices are you making? Why?
Look forward toward future experiences: How might your experiences with delivery, revision, and adaptation help you take advantage of other rhetorical opportunities? Where do you hope to take all of this learning in the future? How? Why?
Be specific
Provide concrete, detailed examples to support your thinking — think of these examples both as “clues” (to help you understand why things worked out the way they did) and as “evidence” (to persuade your reader of your claims).
Make connections
Explain your composition processes, the effect of research, readings, or workshops on your messages, and how you were applying concepts and techniques. Here’s where you might think about cause and effect, and evaluate the effectiveness of your approaches.
Create an action plan
Most models of reflection and reflective writing end with a plan or set of recommendations about how your approaches might change in response to what you’ve learned. This is connected to the future dimension mentioned above.
For example, the reflective writing model proposed by Gary Rolfe and his co-authors suggests the following steps:
- What?
- So what?
- Now what?
In the “now what?” step, you note specific actions and approaches you plan to take for future assignments and situations.
For example, what new ways of thinking about rhetoric have opened up for you? How will your approach to audience, ethos, genre, or medium change or stay the same? What’s something you plan to try next time?
This “now what?” step is possibly the most important part of the reflective process, because it gives you a clear direction for how to put your learning into practice and “level up” as a communicator. This is really about empowerment: setting your own goals and taking control of your own learning journey (Rolfe).
Test Your Knowledge
Activity: Reflection on Rhetorical Appeals
- Choose a recent assignment or speech you completed. This could be a written paper, a class presentation, or any other form of communication you’ve worked on.
- Reflect on your use of rhetorical appeals [Chapter 3] (ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos) throughout the process:
- Ethos: How did you establish credibility with your audience? Did you consider your own authority or trustworthiness on the subject?
- Pathos: What emotions did you aim to evoke in your audience? How did you achieve this?
- Logos: What logical arguments or evidence did you use to support your message? Was your reasoning clear and well-structured?
- Kairos: How did timing or context influence your approach? Did you adapt your message to fit the moment or the audience’s needs?
- Write a journal entry where you answer the following questions:
- What rhetorical strategies did you use, and how effective do you think they were in achieving your purpose?
- What worked well, and what would you change if you had to do it again?
- How did reflecting on this assignment help you understand your strengths and areas for improvement in communication?
- Set a goal for future rhetorical work. After reflecting, identify at least one area for growth that you would like to focus on in upcoming assignments or presentations.
Further Reading and Resources
- “Writing an Academic Reflection Essay” [Website]
- “Reflective Writing” [Website]
- “10 Metacognitive Prompts to Help Students Reflect on Their Learning” [Website]
- Principle of Reflection: an aid to reflective writing [Website]
Works Cited
Didion, Joan. “Why I Write.” The New York Times Book Review, 5 Dec. 1976, pp. 287–293.
Gay, Kristen. “Writing an Academic Reflection Essay.” Writing Commons, 2023, https://writingcommons.org/article/writing-an-academic-reflection-essay/.
Jennings, David, and Paul Sergenor. Principle of Reflection: An Aid to Reflective Writing. OER Commons, University College Dublin, 2012, oercommons.org/courses/principle-of-reflection-an-aid-to-reflective-writing.
Lewis, Kati. “Reflection: We’re Always Doing It.” Open English @ SLCC, Salt Lake Community College English Department, 26 July 2019, pressbooks.pub/openenglishatslcc/chapter/reflection-were-always-doing-it/. Accessed 16 July 2025.
Pappas, Peter, and TeachThought Staff. “10 Metacognitive Prompts to Help Students Reflect on Their Learning.” TeachThought, https://www.teachthought.com/learning/metacognitive-prompts/.
Price-Mitchell, Marilyn. “What Is Metacognition? How Does It Help Us Think?” Psychology Today, 9 Oct. 2020, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-moment-youth/202010/what-is-metacognition-how-does-it-help-us-think. Accessed 16 July 2025.
“Reflective Writing.” University of Cambridge, 2023, https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/reflectivepracticetoolkit/reflectivewriting.
Rolfe, Gary, Dawn Freshwater, and Melanie Jasper. Critical Reflection for Nursing and the Helping Professions: A User’s Guide. Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
SkillsTeamHullUni. “Reflective Writing.” YouTube, 3 Mar. 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoI67VeE3ds.
Third, Sheryl. “7.2 Being Reflective Begins with Reflective Thinking.” Reflective Practice in Early Years Education, Fanshawe College Pressbooks (Nova Scotia Community College), 11 May 2022, pressbooks.atlanticoer-relatlantique.ca/ecereflectivepractice/chapter/7-2-being-reflective-begins-with-reflective-thinking/. Accessed 16 July 2025.
USFCA Rhetoric. “Reflection and Discernment.” YouTube, 1 July 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inJhGBNB_uY&t=1s.
Attributions
This chapter was written and remixed by Leigh Meredith.
Portions of this section were adapted from Katie Lewis’ “Reflection: We’re Always Doing It,” licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
Other portions were taken from Sheryl Third’s “Being Reflective Begins with Reflective Thinking,” licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
