title: A word-count approach to analyze linguistic patterns in the reflective writings of medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Teaching reflection and administering reflective writing assignments to students are widely practiced and discussed in medical education and health professional education. However, little is known about how medical students use language to construct their narratives. Exploring students' linguistic patterns in their reflective writings can facilitate understanding the scope and facets of their reflections and their representational or communication approaches to share their experiences. Moreover, research findings regarding gender differences in language use are inconsistent. Therefore, we attempted to examine how females and males differ in their use of words in reflective writing within our research circumstance to detect the unique and gender-specific approaches to learning and their applications.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed the linguistic profiles of psychological process categories in the reflective writings of medical students and examined the difference in word usage between male and female medical students. During the first year of a clinical rotation, 60 fifth-year medical students wrote reflective narratives regarding pediatric patients and the psychosocial challenges faced by the patients and their family members. The narratives were analyzed using the Chinese version of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (CLIWC), a text analysis software program. Multivariate procedures were applied for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cognitive words were most pervasive, averaging 22.16%, whereas perceptual words (2.86%) were least pervasive. Female students used more words related to positive emotions and sadness than did male students. The male students exceeded the female students only in the space category. The major limitation of this study is that CLIWC cannot directly acquire contextual text meanings; therefore, depending on the research topic, further qualitative study of the given texts might be necessary.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To enhance students' empathy toward the psychosocial issues faced by patients and their family members, students should be encouraged to explore the domain of psychological processes by identifying and expressing their affective and perceptual experiences. Researchers in future studies should use outcome measures such as self-awareness or empathy to determine the overall effectiveness of reflective writing and how changes in linguistic patterns affect such outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling & Clinical Psychology, Dong Hwa University, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chi-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling & Clinical Psychology, Dong Hwa University, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Meei-Ju
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development, Tzu Chi University, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chin-Chen
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Taiwan.|School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Taiwan; chu_chu@tzuchi.com.tw.
authors.forename: Shao-Yin
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D004644:Emotions; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D033262:Narration; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000193:education*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D013624:Taiwan; D014956:Writing
keywords: health professions education; linguistic pattern; medical education; reflective writing
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