Literature Review Reflection

Writing the literature review was the most challenging assignment this semester, but it was also the most satisfying. It required us to engage in almost all the course learning objectives to complete it successfully. In writing it, we had to make sure that we avoided the first-person and wrote appropriately for a literature review (learning objective 3). Even though we had sources from the annotated bibliography, further research was needed to paint a full picture of the topic, and this required the use of data bases and google scholar (learning objective 7). All the information extracted from the articles had to be cited to avoid plagiarism (learning objective 8). The peer editing process helped a lot in getting ideas to expand my writing, as I didn’t have that much down at first (learning objectives 1, 2, and 4). I then remade my thesis and took a firm stance in the literature review using the information i collected (learning outcome 6). In the end, I was satisfied with how I did.

Annotated Bibliography

The annotated bibliography was the first assignment this semester that I received a hundred on, and I am proud of how I did. Learning objective 8 about strengthening source using practices was heavily stressed, as it was literally all we did in the assignment. I used google scholar to find scholarly articles related to the topic, and then i followed the CSE format to cite them. I did have them slightly incorrect at first, but i received feedback and corrected them.

Lab Report Reflection

I feel like the process of writing the research paper required the use of almost all the strategies from the course learning outcomes. When starting the paper, we delegated tasks based on who could do what most efficiently. I knew that I was the only one who took statistics, so i took care of running the statistical tests, explaining them in the discussion, and also the introduction. Furthermore, I outlined each paragraph that I had to write and had my group members look over the initial drafts. In our writing, we had to pay special consideration to the tenses used and making sure we didn’t use the first-person narrative in our methods and discussion. The entire project required us to be social and engage with each other to make a cohesive paper. We couldn’t just avoid talking to each other, as we needed to make changes and brainstorm. For the introduction, I had to use google scholar to find papers written about the correlation between studying habits and grades, as well as see if any similar studies were done. The two studies we found were then used in the paper and were cited parenthetically. While writing this paper, we had to consider the audience and how research papers are generally written, in order to write effectively. Finally, I felt as though this paper didn’t need us to take a stand, as statistics were used, and there was no opinion necessary.

General Audience Paper Reflection

Overall, I believe that I did well in addressing the course learning outcomes in my paper. I knew that my topic was very complicated, and most people aren’t familiar with the terminology, so I asked a friend to read it over and let me know if it was easily understood. When I wrote my first draft, i didn’t include any literary devices, which was something i should have done. In the second draft, I made sure I wrote more effectively and considered the genre to make my stance more clear. Throughout the process, One thing that lacked was using literary resources for my paper. I mostly used google search, while I could have looked at more reputable resources from the start. I was very tired after writing the paper, so I didn’t revise grammar and punctuation. Overall, I feel that I addressed most of the learning outcomes positively.

Scholarly Article Analysis

For the scholarly article, I feel like I did a better job. I did a strong analysis of what choices were consciously made by the authors and what effect they had. I was able to convey my unique thoughts and ideas, while avoiding the first-person. Tis time, I has a friend read it over when I finished, allowing me to clear up ideas and sentences that weren’t clear. I can work on my paragraph conclusions, as I feel like i didn’t transition well enough.

New York Times Article Summary

When I wrote my first draft of the NY Times assignment, I knew I didn’t do as good a job as I could have. I do feel that after the peer-revision, I was able to go back and edit it to something I was proud of. The first draft had some grammatical errors and sentences that sounded awkward. My peers caught them and I was able to improve these aspects. Another lacking aspect initially was my analysis. It was too brief and I didn’t develop my stance enough. The peer-editing process brought this to my attention and I fixed it. One thing that I feel was strong was my summary. I never copied what the author wrote, but rather I took out the important information. One thing I can definitely improve upon is my citing. I know I didn’t cite properly in my references, as I just used a citation machine that may not have been 100% accurate.