Writing a Gibbs Reflective Cycle Essay (Stage by Stage)

Understanding the Gibbs Reflective Cycle

The Gibbs reflective cycle was developed by Graham Gibbs in 1988 as part of his guide Learning by Doing. It gives you a structured way to reflect on an experience so you can learn from it,  not just describe it.

You use what you learn in the Action Plan to prepare for similar situations, then reflect again when those situations arise.

Universities love Gibbs because it builds critical thinking and forces you to connect personal experience with theory, research, or professional standards. That last part, connecting to theory, is where most marks are won or lost.

Gibbs' model works because it forces you to move beyond "what happened" into the harder questions, why it happened, what it means, and what you'd do differently.

Before You Write: What You Need to Get Started

Before you touch the keyboard, get clear on two things: the experience you're reflecting on, and the word allocation you're working with.

For the experience, pick something with enough complexity to analyze. You need to be able to connect it to a theory, professional standard, or research, not just describe what happened.

If you're a nursing student, think about a clinical placement moment. If you're in education or business, think about a challenging team interaction, a lesson that didn't go to plan, or a decision that had consequences. If you need inspiration, check out our guide to reflective essay topics.

Before you start writing, it also helps to have a plan for how to write a reflective essay at a structural level, so you know how the Gibbs essay sits within the broader format.

Once you've chosen your experience, map out your word allocation. This is a table most articles skip, and it's one of the most practical things you can have on hand:

These are guides, not rules; your lecturer may specify a different distribution. But if they haven't, this split reflects where the marks actually are.

Stage 1 Description: Set the Scene Without Telling the Whole Story

Purpose: Give a factual account of what happened. Who was involved, what the context was, what you did, and what the outcome was.

That's it. No interpretation, no feelings, no judgment. Those come in the next five stages.

Guiding questions for this stage:

• What happened?
• Who was involved?
• What was the context or setting?
• What did you do, and what did others do?
• What was the immediate outcome?

Here's the most common mistake students make in this stage: they treat it like a full story and write far too much. Your description should give enough context for a reader to understand what happened, nothing more.

Notice the stronger version is cleaner, more precise, and leaves a feeling for the next section.

Stage 2 Feelings: Be Honest Without Oversharing

Purpose: Explore your emotional response. What were you thinking and feeling before, during, and after the experience, and how did those feelings affect what you did?

This stage trips students up in two different ways. Some skip it entirely or write one throwaway sentence ("I felt nervous"). Others go too personal, turning this into a diary entry. Neither approach works academically.

A nursing student might write about feeling torn between confidence in their theoretical knowledge and anxiety about independent clinical action. An education student might reflect on frustration when a class didn't engage as expected, and how that frustration affected their response in the moment. These are academically valid observations because they connect directly to professional behavior.

Stage 3 Evaluation: What Worked, What Didn't

Purpose: Make a balanced assessment of the experience. What went well? What went badly?

Key word: balanced. This stage isn't a defense of your choices or a list of regrets. It's an honest audit of both the positives and the negatives.

Evaluation is the honest audit, not a defense of your choices, not a list of regrets.

Students often struggle here because they feel awkward either praising themselves or criticizing themselves.

For a nursing placement, you might evaluate that your technical procedure was correct (positive), but your communication with the patient was rushed and unclear (negative). For a group project, you might note that the output was strong but the process was chaotic and stressful for the team.

Stage 4 Analysis: Where the Real Marks Are

Purpose: Explain why things happened the way they did. This is where you connect your experience to theory, research, or professional standards.

If the Description tells the story and the Evaluation judges it, the Analysis makes sense of it. You're moving from "what happened" and "was it good or bad" to "what does this actually mean, and what explains it?"

This is where your references go. Use phrases like "This can be explained by…", "According to [author/theory]…", or "Research by [X] suggests…". For nursing students, this might mean referencing NMC standards, clinical guidelines, or a theoretical framework like Benner's novice-to-expert model. For more on this context, our nursing reflective essay guide goes into much more depth.

A common mistake here is restating the evaluation in different words. Writing "the patient communication was poor because I wasn't communicating well" is not analysis, it's circular. Analysis would be: "The poor patient communication may be explained by communication anxiety in high-stakes clinical contexts, which Ley (1988) attributes to information overload combined with situational stress."

Stage 5 Conclusion: What You Learned (Really)

Purpose: Synthesize what you've learned. Not a summary of the experience,  a statement of what changed in your understanding or your approach.

One important thing to clarify: this is the Conclusion stage, not the conclusion of your whole essay. Your essay structure may end with an overall conclusion paragraph after all six stages, which is separate. 

Stage 6 Action Plan: What You'll Do Next

Purpose: Set specific, actionable steps you'll take based on what you've learned. This is what makes Gibbs a cycle; it feeds forward into your future practice.

The keyword is specific. Vague commitments are one of the most common weaknesses in this section.

See the difference? The strong version is measurable, time-bound, and referenced to a real resource. Your reader should be able to imagine you actually doing it.

Downloadable Resources for Gibbs Cycle Reflective Essay

Common Mistakes to Avoid in a Gibbs Reflective Essay

Most students lose marks in the same places. Here's what to watch for:

1. Too much Description, not enough Analysis.

This is by far the most common issue. Keep your description tight, around 15 to 20% of your word count, and put your energy into the Analysis stage.

2. Skipping Feelings or writing one sentence.

"I felt nervous" is not enough. Explain how those feelings are connected to your actions and decisions.

3. Informal first person.

Reflective writing uses "I," but keep it professional. "I was like, really stressed" belongs in a text message, not an essay. "I experienced considerable anxiety about the outcome" is the right register.

4. Missing theory in Analysis.

If your Analysis stage has no references, no author names, and no connection to frameworks or professional standards, it's not analysis, it's just more evaluation.

5. Vague Action Plan.

Generic commitments ("I will communicate better") don't demonstrate professional development. Be specific about what you'll do, when, and how.

6. Confusing the Conclusion stage with the essay's overall conclusion.

They're not the same. The Gibbs Conclusion stage (Stage 5) is about learning. Your essay's overall conclusion wraps up the whole piece.

7. Describing without connecting to a professional context.

Reflective essays aren't diary entries. Everything you write should connect back to your development as a practitioner, student, or professional.

Conclusion

Mastering the Gibbs Cycle Reflective Essay becomes much easier when you understand each stage and apply it systematically. By following the six structured steps, description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, and action plan, you can transform real experiences into meaningful academic reflection. This model not only strengthens critical thinking but also supports professional growth, especially in fields such as nursing and healthcare.

Use this guide as your roadmap to writing a well-structured, high quality Gibbs Reflective Cycle essay that demonstrates insight, learning, and continuous improvement.