Describe, Explain and Justify

Describe

In descriptive writing or presentation the author demonstrates an ability to use appropriate language to report a situation, including the issues raised in it. This may include summaries of the positions taken by others, and would include an account of an accepted decision making technique. To describe the potential outcomes of two alternative responses to a situation, and to determine the preferred response using a results-based or rule-based approach is essentially descriptive. This is described by Hatton and Smith (1995) as technical reflection or descriptive writing.

Explain

Explanatory writing includes alternative views of a situation, event or dilemma and the conceptual basis for them, but does not include an evaluation of the relative benefit of the alternative views. This would include setting out how different responses might be preferred by different approaches to ethical decision making – eg rule-based, results-based and virtue. It would explain how the application of each approach led to the respective responses. This is described in Hatton and Smith (1995) as descriptive reflection. It may contain an element of personal engagement – “I prefer the virtue approach because I believe people should aim toward wholeness”.

Justify

Writing which contains an element of justification will include a critical evaluation of propositions and alternatives. This requires both the statement of a choice or preference and the clear statement of the basis or criteria on which the choice has been made. The reasons which support selection or validity of these criteria themselves will be include in a fully justified presentation. It may also include the formulation of new positions. This is described by Hatton and Smith (1995) as critical reflection. They also have a category, dialogic reflection, which lies between descriptive and critical reflection.