Reflection requires time. In one class, students were asked to engage in a process of written reflection about the writing they had done immediately after they prepared their papers, as they sat in class preparing to hand in those papers. Reflective writing, which Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff call "process writing," appears throughout their book, "A Community of Writers: A Workshop Course in Writing." Donald Murray, in "Expecting the Unexpected," lists the benefits of writing about writing. How an individual learns and the crucial role of reflection in that learning is expressed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his spiritual treatise, "Aids to Reflection," in which he states that self-knowledge is the key and it is obtained only by reflection. Students observe that writing about writing helps them see how prepared they were to complete the task at hand. Students who view their papers reflectively are more likely to see themselves as crafting something which can be shaped in a more and more pleasing way than just something dashed off at the last minute, minimally meeting a requirement. John Dewey advocates reflective thinking because it empowers the thinker to avoid impulsive action and to engage in deliberate and intentional action. For the instructor, knowing what students are thinking and how they perceive what is being done in the class is an important part of being a reflective teacher. (Contains 8 references; a list of student comments and 5 sample pieces are appended.) (CR)