The Year Abroad (YA) is one of the most valuable parts of our language degree programmes. Here we discuss some of the elements that constitute the assessment Nottingham Trent University students carry out to earn a YA diploma. More specifically we compare the two elements (blog and dossier) that we think contribute most to reflective practice, by analysing examples from students of French, German, and Spanish. Although at this point the analysis remains impressionistic, we compare which of these two elements helps students to reflect more deeply and meaningfully while achieving the YA objectives. The main findings indicate that both types of text help students to reflect on their experience and consequently to develop their Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). Notably, the use of the target language does not appear to determine the level of reflection while the intended audience plays an important part in the style and accessibility of students' work. [For the complete volume, "Perspectives on the Year Abroad: A Selection of Papers from YAC2018," see ED603732.]