When I first started this course, I did not know much of the requirement and expectations of Writing 39C. I have gotten preludes from my previous writing courses: Academic English 20B-C and Writing 39A-B, that Writing 39C is a course on research writing and that it consists two main components. However, I did not know what was specifically included in the course and I was not familiar in writing a research based paper because the papers that I have written for other classes are analysis and critics.
With a limited knowledge and little experience on the process of composing a research paper, I struggled through the first assignment, the first steps for the Historical Conversations Project (HCP). It was difficult for me to choose a topic because …show more content…
In the second draft of my HCP, I changed the way that I state my arguments by using leading questions, but I was not using enough of them, and the leading questions that I used were weak and too abstract. I asked a question in the abstract of draft two: “whether or not, the first amendment is giving the people too much of freedom, and should free speech be regulated (Figure-2)”. This was too general of an argument for my paper, but I learned that I have to break down the big question to specific questions to help the readers to understand the focuses in my paper. I also began to understand the idea of multi-modal and I started to find more images to give my readers a virtual sense of my topic. To be prepared for the final draft of the HCP, I went through the research paper, and marked some areas that I should expand and specify on. For instance, I provided more perspectives of the scholars to break down the problem of “fake news”. As I moved on to my final draft of the HCP, I was able to use more specific questions such as “In what ways do fake news impact politics and society” (Figure-3). I did not only use questions in the abstract, but I also used them throughout the paper as guiding questions and transitions. When comparing all of my drafts, there was a significant improvement on the structure of my paper and the way that I state my arguments. I was also more familiar with the technical …show more content…
I learned to first define a topic, then to come up with the claims that refer to the topic. However, the most challenging part was to find scholarly sources that can support my perspective, and to persuade or catch the attention of the audience. A research paper should include an abstract that gives the overview of the paper, claims that are supported with opinions from scholars, and personal ideas that can logically make sense. With the knowledge that I gained in the HCP, I was better prepared for the second major paper of the course, the Advocacy Project
With a limited knowledge and little experience on the process of composing a research paper, I struggled through the first assignment, the first steps for the Historical Conversations Project (HCP). It was difficult for me to choose a topic because …show more content…
In the second draft of my HCP, I changed the way that I state my arguments by using leading questions, but I was not using enough of them, and the leading questions that I used were weak and too abstract. I asked a question in the abstract of draft two: “whether or not, the first amendment is giving the people too much of freedom, and should free speech be regulated (Figure-2)”. This was too general of an argument for my paper, but I learned that I have to break down the big question to specific questions to help the readers to understand the focuses in my paper. I also began to understand the idea of multi-modal and I started to find more images to give my readers a virtual sense of my topic. To be prepared for the final draft of the HCP, I went through the research paper, and marked some areas that I should expand and specify on. For instance, I provided more perspectives of the scholars to break down the problem of “fake news”. As I moved on to my final draft of the HCP, I was able to use more specific questions such as “In what ways do fake news impact politics and society” (Figure-3). I did not only use questions in the abstract, but I also used them throughout the paper as guiding questions and transitions. When comparing all of my drafts, there was a significant improvement on the structure of my paper and the way that I state my arguments. I was also more familiar with the technical …show more content…
I learned to first define a topic, then to come up with the claims that refer to the topic. However, the most challenging part was to find scholarly sources that can support my perspective, and to persuade or catch the attention of the audience. A research paper should include an abstract that gives the overview of the paper, claims that are supported with opinions from scholars, and personal ideas that can logically make sense. With the knowledge that I gained in the HCP, I was better prepared for the second major paper of the course, the Advocacy Project