COURSE REFLECTION

     When starting ENC 1102 this semester I wasn’t all that excited because of the experience I had in ENC 1101. However, I quickly noticed that this class was much more than my other one ever was. When told that we would be writing a research paper I was instantly bummed because research papers were never my strong suit. I think part of the reason I dread them so much is because I was never really taught the proper ways to write one. Given the freedom to write our papers on anything we wanted really benefited me. Getting to write about something that you are actually interested in makes the project instantly more intriguing which is why I decided to do my research on organic farming. Looking back on everything I have learned this semester makes me so grateful for this class. I feel that my writing skills have improved tremendously.

Outcome 1:

Before diving straight into a research paper it is always a good idea to plan out what and how you think you want to conduct your research. When writing my research proposal I made sure to state the audience so that when I started to write my paper I would remember the way I needed to express my paper. This excerpt from my research proposal shows a good example of outcome one in the sense that it describes the type of readers that would benefit from this paper.

“Readers’: My research will be directed towards the growth of organics and what is keeping certain people from going organic. The readers of my paper should have some interest in organics or have the desire to gain more knowledge about it if it’s something they know little about”.

Outcome 2:

My methods section gives a good example of outcome two by showing how I conducted my research and what kinds of results I was looking for. The survey I conducted displays how I was able to propose ample research questions and form them into something that I could gather data from. It took some time to put together a set of questions that related to my research topic but my final product turned out well. Some of the questions I used were as follows:

“How important are organic products to you?” and “Is eating organic beneficial? Why or why not?”

Outcome 3:

My annotated bibliography helped to provide somewhat of a basis for my literature review. It made me look more into what each source I collected was saying and how they were relatable. It was a good way for me to expand on each topic that I chose to talk about. When I went to write my literature I referred back to my annotated bibliography a lot for support. It definitely helped me in making connections between sources for the synthesis I needed in my final paper.

Outcome 4:

I feel that the interpretive summary relates most to outcome 4. It had us focus on one main source and build from there. From this one source I could expand on the importance of what I was arguing and make my argument that much stronger. Since this was one of our first assignments it helped me to understand analysis: how to write it and why it is a necessity in a research paper. Although this example isn’t the best argument of analysis it was one of the first ones I wrote for this class and they have since improved a tremendous amount.

“Kummer recently visited two ranchers who had switched to grass-fed beef techniques. Both seemed to encounter three challenges: finding slaughter houses that will humanely butcher just a few cows, having meat all year round when grass is not, and selling both prime and secondary cuts. Tom Gamble believes that the market will flourish once consumers understand how grass feeding contributes to the environment and to flavor”.

Outcome 5:

My literature review fits best for outcome 5. The first draft of my lit review was actually almost completely wrong. I clearly had no idea what I was doing or what I was trying to portray through the piece. However, I met with my instructor and he was able to guide me in the right direction for writing the paper. I feel that my lit review has made a great turn around after I went back and revised my work. I didn’t make enough connections in my first draft there was no synthesis, it was basically just a more in depth version of my annotated bibliography. I am now satisfied with the lit review that I have produced and I think it does a good job of portraying my research topic.

 

Overall I feel that I have very much benefitted from this class. Not only have I learned the proper way to compose a research paper but I have also achieved the knowledge and skill of creating connections between sources. Bringing together two sources and creating synthesis was the biggest problem I always had when writing research papers. I feel that I have definitely improved as a writer.