Write reflectively about your project. There are no right or wrong ways to write reflectively, but critical engagement is a must in order to earn credit here.
Some approaches you might take:
Consider the challenges you have faced as you developed your project and how you have overcome or met those challenges.
Write about how your topic evolved from the beginning of the term up to now.
Write about lessons you have learned from different assignments you completed up to this point.
Looking back on the term, and given what you now know, what would you do differently and why?
NOTE: you are not limited by the above suggestions- these are merely guidelines to help you develop your reflection.
Originally, I wanted to just write about emotions. Not why we people felt them or what caused them. The vagueness of the original topic made rethink. To dive deeper into a subject, you must know what you want to research about. I thought about the topic until, I found an internal question inside of me, “What would I like to learn?” I eventually finalized my topic to “Why to people experience emotions differently?”
ReplyDeleteLater, I had difficulty creating clean writing. Even after rereading my sources, synthesizing them together was very difficult to me. I couldn’t get my point across easily with my word choices. To solve this problem, I started rereading my sentences. I would rewrite them in any way that makes them shorter while conveying the same meaning. If I could rewrite everything I have written, I would.
I initially chose to write about dreams and what they meant but I found that topic to be way too broad and well-established already. This led me to switch my topic to nightmares and their effects on people. I did a lot of research on nightmares and found a lot of stuff, but noticed that a it was very mixed on their views on nightmares and their true effects on people's health.
ReplyDeleteFrom previous works, I found that I have difficulties particularly with cutting the dead wood out of my writing. I tend to fluff up a lot of my writing unintentionally and end up with a lot more writing than I should have for certain pieces. I started combatting this by starting to revise my work more and cut out writing that I don't need.
With my lit review, I had difficulties really with determining whether to lean towards the positive or negative aspects of them. With so many varying views on them that I looked into, it was hard for me to really decide for myself.
My final research topic was a last-minute decision, and far from my first idea. When I began researching my topic of the gendering of toy designs and toy advertisements, it was due to my aggravation towards people picking apart toy companies for making toys specifically for girls and toys specifically for boys. I sought to find an answer to why companies did this… which I knew would not be easy. At first, I did not decide to look at design and advertisements. I just figured I would look at what people said about particular toys. However, the more I learned about how to write a research paper, the more I realized that I had to make observations of my own. If I knew this, I may have presented the question in a way that seems to execute my observations, but either way, writing and research is going much smoother now. I have built confidence in my own work after my peer review and grades have turned out better than expected.
ReplyDeleteWhile doing this project I have faced several setbacks and challenges. It has been a journey filled with improvements. My writing has improved immensely after receiving and incorporating the advice that professor Longhany has given me at the many sessions i've had with him at his office hours. Every time I have went to him i have left with a new perspective on my writing and lessons/ways on how to improve my research and paper. The most important lesson that I have learned from his is to remove the dead wood that is attached to my previous writing style. I have also learned that i must show instead of tell. I have used all the advice and lessons that i have learned and incorporated them into my papers that i have written. The most helpful assignment that we did had to be the peer review. This helped me because i was provided with effective feedback to my paper and I was also able to see how others did their papers. I improved my own paper alot after doing the peer review. My topic/research has evolved from the beginning of this semester where we were giving our research proposals. After gathering more data and sources I have gained clarity on what i should and will be researching. The thing that I would change about what i have done while looking back at this semester is going to the writing lab to get help on my writing from professionals.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started this project my open ended question asked what defined intelligence. However, after a long and interesting talk with Professor Longhany I was able to find a much more interesting topic that addressed sibling rivalry. Throughout the semester my thesis has been altered four different times. I was able to utilize the UCF library database system and completely familiarize myself with the in-depth research the database is capable of. I have learned the importance of research when it comes to writing and how much easier it is to write a paper based off of extensive research. I was happy with my topic because throughout the entire semester I was extremely interested in what I was learning and wanted to learn more. Looking back on the term, and given what I now know, I would only change the amount of time spent on some of my papers. For example, I could’ve spent more time working on my annotated bibliography and as much time as I spent on my literature review I feel like I should have spent even more time on it. Other than some minor setbacks I enjoyed doing this project and hope the rest of the project is just as enjoyable and a little less stressful.
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