Research Reflection

English 121

Research Reflection

 

            As I look back at my semester of English, I see a lot of goals, surprises and other sorts of information that I have achieved and wanted to express. The biggest school I had walking into English was finishing the semester with an A. I wanted to learn how to write less casually. In my former English classes that seemed to be my only drawback. Writing casually was the only thing standing between me and getting an A in English. I can honestly tell you, that I have somewhat achieved this goal. I still write casually, but now I know how to use certain words and know when to use them. I honestly still need to work on writing less casually. I have been told several times that when people read my writing, they feel as if I am talking to them. It is just one of the many things I still need to work on. I found a lot of surprises when I was researching my topic on vinyl records. I have discovered a want of crazy cool information. I did not know that record sales have increased by 25% the last five years. I did not know that records are indeed making a strong comeback. I always assumed that I was the only teenager that liked vinyl records. The best parts of my paper are my body paragraphs. I have never been able to give so much information. I found some great sources from the databases we were assigned to use. Not getting very much information was also one of my drawbacks from my old English classes in high school. So having these new sources seemed to be a blessing to me. I would have to say that I am most proud of my bibliography. My works cited page. I can predict that my professor will enjoy my body paragraphs the most. I feel that I have gotten a lot better on my computer skills. I feel like I know now what is more credible than other things. I know how to navigate databases a lot more efficiently. The thing I enjoyed the most about the research process was being able to learn about something that I love. I enjoyed researching. The only thing I didn’t like was having to write the paper. But I can tell you that it was pretty simple for me. I was able to write down information because I had great credible sources. I found exactly what I needed. I didn’t spend a lot of time the week on researching because I found the sources that I wanted right off the bat. The only way I can make some adjustments to my paper would be the grammatical errors. I found some helpful research hints and it would be to only use databases. The reason I say this is because the databases give you citations. You don’t have to spend 20 minutes trying to write a citation from one website. These databases are very credible and the citations are also there for you. This will help make your research a lot quicker. It would also help with the works cited page as well.

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Rough Reflection Outline

Madeleine Seltzer's Reflection

        The goals that I had at the beginning of the semester varied from expanding my knowledge in grammar to being able to produce a clear essay with an opposing argument. Eventually my goal was to persuade my reader with my research.  I did accomplish being able to differentiate between an exemplification essay and a research essay. My grammar also improved and I learned about logical fallacies and their importance.  

      Before enrolling in this class, I was unable to focus on a topic and I could not narrow down the argument in order to persuade the reader. This class has helped me discover a way to concentrate on the subject by thinning down the theme and pumping up the research. I became aware of databases this semester and the importance of a reliable source. It made my work so much easier and it let me trust the material I was reading without having to do a background check on the website. I also noticed how crucial an opposing argument is to a research essay, and that the counter argument actually made my initial argument even stronger.

       The chunks of my paper that I am most proud of are within the meshing of global ideas and individual benefits. Before I started writing this paper, I was having tremendous trouble narrowing down my topic. I wanted to be able to persuade the reader and I felt like writing a paper about local green commuting would reassure this. Instead, I decided to go in the opposite direction and draw the scale much wider. From a global perspective, I was able to achieve my main purpose of exemplifying the beneficial aspects an individual will feel while green commuting. At the same time I was able to show why some countries adapt more than the United States. I think that my revelations and my counter argument are solid parts of this essay as well. Since my thesis and the point I was trying to prove was about enhancing an individual’s life by green commuting, I felt like the counter argument needed to fit that level. Instead of researching the reason why taxes are not spent on better public transit in most cities in the United States, I decided to press on the hesitation of why people do not green commute because of fear of danger and inconvenience. I assume that my instructor will be fond of my topic on a personal level, because she is a green commuter herself. I also think that my instructor will be impressed with my counter argument and the thought that I put into it. It was difficult for me to even find a counter argument for this topic because it seemed strange to me that anyone would be opposed to exercise, improving air quality and finding more ways to be immersed in social settings. I then began to think about why more people do not participate in green commuting and landed on a couple issues that individuals battle with, such as fear of danger and simple inconvenience.

     The technology aspect of this class overwhelmed me in the beginning. I had barely read blogs let alone published one of my own. I think that the instructor did a tremendous job on interconnecting more technological factors into learning. It makes sense as a student, to be introduced to more web skills because that is where the majority of information can be found. Formatting my papers in the MLA format was a constant struggle throughout the class, but by the end of this paper I felt confident in the citations and I was not hesitant to find more resources just because I did not want to have to cite them. I enjoyed unraveling the argument and discovering new points that I could use, I found that exciting and interesting. It kept my motivation going through this process. I also enjoyed going to the writing center and seeking out help there. At one point of this process I felt completely overwhelmed. I had put a lot into the topic that I had planned to write on but I did not feel attached to it. I felt like it was too far to turn back so I proceeded with my initial topic. I am glad that I did because in this process I learned that any topic can have many different features and as the writer, I did not need to feel stuck, I just had to refresh my research and become more passionate.

      The most useful and helpful part of this entire development was when I gathered all of the research I was interested in and then wrote a paragraph that explained why those pieces of data were crucial to my topic. After that, I narrowed down my topic and from there I considered the opposing argument. Once the opposing argument was set in stone I was able to work around that and counter it throughout the essay, which in the end persuaded the reader even more.

     

Reflective Essay Connor Allen

Connor Allen

English 121

12-3-15

            For my first year in college I was expecting big changes. With the work load and the professors, I expected much and was prepared for the classes. I made goals for myself to accomplish especially in my writing. I have always been told that I am a decent writer and that I have great ideas. I wanted to be able to connect those ideas with my research. I write semi casual and make mistakes with the tone of my writing. My goals were to make my writing easier to understand and follow my ideas better. Another goal was to work on word choice and add better vocabulary in my writing. My third goal was to accomplish papers with ought the stress of overloading myself. I wanted to pace out my papers so that they could have the proper time to be edited and drafted. Goals that I have accomplished would be goals like writing my papers on time and drafting them more frequently. Another goal that I felt I worked on was to add vocabulary that made my essay flow better. One more goal that I felt I reached was my sentence structure. I felt that I made it easier to follow my ideas in my paper. Goals that I still need to work on would be my run on sentences. I seem to write run on sentences a lot and need to work them out. The other goal I made that I didn’t reach was my MLA citations. On my research paper I wrote about hunting and the economy. I was surprised to learn about how much money is received from license sales and federal taxes. I didn’t know that the money from duck stamps went to land conservation. I didn’t know that there were websites that helped promote hunting. Colorado’s website is hug a hunter. I felt the best part of my paper was the way I related my facts to my thesis. I felt every point I made helped draw conclusions back to my thesis. I think I also did well on word choice in my paper I feel that that was good. I think my instructor will like the way I structured my essay. It was full of information and I think having it tie together with my thesis and my main ideas will help make my instructor like my paper. I also feel like my instructor will like the data that was collected, the data is concrete and informs about hunting sales and how it helps the economy. I feel like I stayed somewhat the same with my computer and web skills. I learned how to blog which was beneficial. I learned how to cite sources from online websites. I learned easier ways to type on the paper by focusing on my typing patterns. The research process was a good way to stay focused and gather great data. I enjoy learning new facts about my subject. I didn’t like having to search through multiple articles to find little pieces of data. Things that are easy for me when researching would be the ability to fine reputable sources. Things that are hard for me is trying to find good factual data. I found mostly what I needed. I spent about three hours a week on research looking up my data. I felt that the time restraints were fine for my research paper. The only thing I would do better would be to research more about specific topics that I could include in my essay.  Some hints that I have found that helped me quickly in my research process would be to look at the end of the URL in a website. Websites like .org and .gov are great reputable sources. I would like to have a data base to use when I’m researching data.