Oil Drilling

My research essay was a medium success. This is because of the thorough planning that went into the essay. My assignment goal was to discuss the damages done by an oil drilling operation. I knew early in that the damages were very wide. I also knew I had to narrow down exactly what damages to discuss. In the end I chose the coral reefs, marine life, and the workers that responded. The overall tone was to be the environmental impacts. I was open to any impacts environmentally that I may find through research. The problematic portion to this assignment was finding credible sources that were not overly technical. Overly technical sources forced me to paraphrase which I try to avoid in writing papers. The oil spill became in large ways …show more content…
I felt this topic to be more than perfect. Looking back I do not think I had the foresight to see how many issues I would run into in writing the paper especially with sources. In my preliminary searches I found an abundance of information. Unfortunately this information was part of a broad picture and it did not really fit into the constraints of the research paper I was to write. This forced me to dig deeper and put more work into the creation of the paper than originally felt. I found UMUC's library to almost be the only source of credibility I was going to find. This fact concerned me but, it was at a point of no return that I discovered this. I choose to search smarter and narrow down my search using key words that were specific. Words like coral reef and wildlife became a focus point. I was sure when choose the topic that the library would not be a huge problem with sources. The only challenge there would be to narrow down search results merely for time. The overall experience with the search at this point was positive. I knew I still more than likely had to travel to the Gulf Coast soon and hoped I would get a better insight into what happened there. As it was merely a matter …show more content…
The process of writing the essay led me to the water the spill contaminated but also to the very lands and people that were affected. I feel like I not only became a better writer from this experience but I also became a better researcher. In previous academic papers I have written, sources were pretty clear. I think this is because I do not historically write about controversial issues nor environmental issues. This topic choice was both controversial and environmental. I have learned sometimes the best sources of information are buried deep inside the library. Sometimes, a web search is not the best option nor, does it have the greatest record of authenticity. I would give myself an A rating overall. I took a subject I knew little about and became not only an expert on it but, I became much better on the research side of the house. I travelled to the lands affected and found myself feeling like a journalist must feel when writing a story. Going into this assignment I did not want the best grade I, wanted to show the best research. In order to do this I had to understand the story. I needed to feel the incident. My regrets would only be I did not know how to add the first hand experience into the academic research essay. The experience did not fit into the topics of discussion. I think at the end of the day I accomplished what I set out to do. At the end of the day everyone who reads my paper will walk away with not