Q & A forum

Reflection and references

Thu, 15 Oct 2026 17:51:00 GMT

by Paul Hutchings.

Another good question and one that we will be addressing in the next set of sessions...

'...Does each individual reflection require at least one reference included?'

Next week we will have a session focusing on reflection, and in particular critical reflection; not just reflecting upon yourself, but being able to consider what the research evidence says about what you are reflecting upon.

Therefore it may seem odd to talk about having citations and references when writing reflection, but as you will see it is actually both appropriate and important for our reflections in an appropriate academic way.

So the answer to the question is a simple 'yes' but next week I'll be fully explaining why and how.

pbh

Assessment Word Count

Thu, 15 Oct 2026 17:44:19 GMT

by Paul Hutchings.

I've had several questions about the word count, so I will amalgamate them into a response here and we can discuss further in the first clinic if it still needs clarification.

The assessment proforma states that the submission is to be 'Six elements (equivalent to 3,000 words)'. When it comes to portfolios the word 'equivalent' is doing a lot of heavy lifting! Because of the nature of a portfolio, especially one which includes evidence of engagement that may not contain any words at all for some MLAs, you can't apply a true 'word count'; it isn't like an essay where you can physically count the words on the page.

We have approached this from the point of view that each MLA is roughly equivalent to 500 words. If you think about something like the Skills Audit, Time Audit, or Digital Habits Audit, by the time you have written a few words in each of the sections of the document that will leave you about 200-300 words for an critical reflection at the end; if using the Synthesis task or the Myth-busting task then we have suggested word counts in the MLA document of between 250-500 words and you should use these as a guide for how much to write.

There is a reason why the word 'equivalent' is so important in this assessment - if you are using the RefWorks or EMS tasks in your portfolio then there are no words associated with that submission, but they are important skills we want you to learn; similarly, technically the Jumbled Reference List doesn't have a word count because you are moving things around and correcting them... but that doesn't mean it doesn't take time and learning to do.

So if you submitted MLAs 7, 8, and 11 you wouldn't have actually written any words, but we would class that as equivalent to 1,500 of your word count.

For this portfolio we don't want you going through and counting every word to try to get to that magical 3,000 figure - it is a guide that has to be there (we have to provide a word count on the document as part of our quality assurance process to show that we are assessing at an appropriate level) but I won't be going through your portfolio counting words. That will undoubtedly be different for your other assessments where you will have clearly-defined word or time limits, but we said at the start of this module that this is a very different type of module to many others you are taking, and so the assessment is also different in that respect.

And to answer another question... definitely not 3,000 words per MLA!

pbh

Re: MLA 10

Thu, 15 Oct 2026 17:02:46 GMT

by Paul Hutchings.

Good question, and I would say definitely the latter - many people feel uncomfortable but not all, so the reflection can be about feeling comfortable as well - a really important thing you have identified in the latter part is that of real or imagined - some people may never have experienced speaking in front of a group of people so can only imagine it, but that doesn't make the feelings that go with it any less intense than for those who have actually experienced it.
So if you were to reflect on this in an MLA then positives are just as valid to reflect upon as negatives, and you can reflect upon how you feel either from direct experience or from just imagining what it would be like.

Good question, and we'll definitely address it in the next clinic.