By now, you have probably figured out that a vital part of learning is reflecting on what you have done and where you have been. This "thinking about your thinking" creates opportunities to test out your thinking and your methods to see what worked and what needs improving.
In your comment, please respond to the following:
- What skills or techniques helped you research your topic and/or write your paper? How do you know these skills or techniques helped your project be more successful?
- What would you like to improve about your process for writing a research paper? Would you revise anything about the process?
- What did you learn about your topic as a result of this process? What did you learn about researching/writing as a part of completing this project?
The skills and techniques that helped me with my project was the time saving skills to find and locate the information for my paper. It helped my paper be more successul in I was able to locate information quicker. The annotating was useful in deciding what was fact or fiction and helped answer my questions I had on my topic. I would like to improve on not procrastinating to find the research and writing my paper. What I learned about my topic is that even though somthing looks good on the outside to help, but when looked at in depth it could actually do more harm than good. I learned that reasearching and writing a paper on a specific topic isn't as hard a I thought would be.
ReplyDelete1. Skills that I used in writing this paper included the four step annotation method. This method helped me to pinpoint exactly what information I wanted to include in my research paper and to access it easily.
ReplyDelete2. My process for writing a research paper is still very broad for such a short paper. I would have liked to narrow down my topic question to get more specific results.
3. I learned from writing this paper that a research question if not specific enough can yield a lot of data that may or may not pertain to the main idea of your essay.
The technique i have used to research my topic and write my paper was the time saving method. This allowed me to get the information i needed without spending hours looking for information that i wanted for my topic. This allowed me to get the research i needed without having to read all kinds of articles over and over again. This saved me alot of time and was very benefitical to me. One thing i would like to improve is to narrow my papers down piece by piece. Sometimes i attend to throw everything together, which doesnt make my papers very well orginized. I would like to imkprove by becoming for formiliar to looking up information. Sometimes i have a hard time finding the research i am looking for.One thing i have learned is that using the time saving method helps you get the information that you need. I found it easier that when searching for your topic, that its better to type in directly what your looking for. If you search for a topic without narrowing it down, you end up with a bunch of research that you may not need. I found this method useful and plan to use it for others papers i may have to write.
ReplyDeleteThe annotation method really helped me with my research paper. It was much easier to understand what my sources were saying which made it easier to use that information in my paper. I still need to improve thinking of a more narrow research question and making a thesis. I still struggle with having too much information on a broad topic. I cannot seem to narrow it down enough to fit a specific thesis. From this research project I learned how to better find cources and evaluate them for credibilty. I also learned a lot about the living wage. I did not undertsand exactly what it was or how it was beneficial to employees.
ReplyDeleteDeAndra:
ReplyDeleteThe method that I used was the time saving method. This method worked best for me because I was able to get all things I needed to get said, said. I would improve on having more things to say. I learned that my topic was a topic that many people have an issue with.
The things that helped me most while writing my paper were the techniques that we learned in class. The time saving methods for looking through possible research materials were very helpful. Also, the inside-out writing method was essential. I would probably still be sitting at the library researching if not for those two techniques.
ReplyDeleteI need to improve in my methods for chosing a topic. I can be very indecisive sometimes and this makes researching harder because I'm constantly changing my research question.
I learned a lot about how living wages work. I also had to do some extra research on the economy to understand the effects a living wages has on it. That was very enlightening. As far as researching/writing goes I learned that its not as scary as it seems. A first I was really intimidated by all the work but the step by step method used in class helped me realize that it wasn't that big of a deal.
1.)I implemented the time saving method in my paper, it assisted in pin pointing exactly the information that I wanted to put into my paper and keeping all unnecessary information out.
ReplyDelete2.)I would like to improve on the idea process. I have so many ideas I want to put into a paper and at times it can be overwhelming to a reader. I would like to be able to more easily narrow down my ideas, so I have a better idea of what details need to be added to my paper.
3.)Seeing as my topic was the minimum wage I learned that it has been a constant issue in American history, it has been easily one of the most debated and split topics. I learned that research is very easy to do, if you have the right question you can easily find sources to answer it.
The search engine websites helped speed up the researching process, which saved more time for writing the actual paper.
ReplyDeleteMaybe next time I will make mini deadlines for myself, that way I can be more organized.
Well, I collect CDs and I know that not many people even buy CDs anymore, they just download everything. I knew a lot about record sales and how illegal downloading has created a huge decline in them, so a lot of the information I knew, it was just more specific information that I took away from in this paper.
1)Well first off I followed a schedule/plan for transitioning from research to the paper itself. Following the schedule helped me focus on specific steps to get the point of my thesis across. Although I chose to write about copyright infringement because I was most interested in it, I tried to remain unbiased throughout the paper.
ReplyDelete2) I still need to work on turning information I researched into my own ideas. I would have also included more variety in my sources. They were basically what the laws were compared to what people had to say about them on both sides. The laws should have played less of a role as opposed to the varying opinions, because it is a controversial topic.
3)I learned that file sharing on the internet completely changed the music industry and the way that we access music. I was suprised to learn how many people were on the side of napster, including the artists whose material was being freely distributed. As for writing, this proved that the research was just as, if not more important than the actual writing itself.
The skills or techniques that helped me on this paper, were the ones that we learned in class, were we can save time and point out what info you want to put in your paper. I know that this skill/technique helped my project to be more successful because it was way easier to use, and I had a lot more info to put in my paper.
ReplyDeleteSomething that I would like to improve about my process is fitting my researched information in the right spots in my research paper.
I learned that steroids is a serious drug, in many different ways. Its way more dangerous then I thought it was, and its cheating while taking them and playing a sport at the same time.
The technique I used to reseach my topic was the time saving method. It helped me because its a lot faster in finding information because I'm not sitting there reading the stuff that has nothing to do with what I'm looking for.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would like to improve about my process for writing a research paper is looking up information. I just find myself having truble finding information.
What I learned about my topic was that cell phones can be used as learning tools eventhough it seems like you can't. What I learned about researching and writing is that asking a question can help in findinginformation.
Like most, the time saving techinques seemed to help the most. Pre writing was a big one. The way we learned that a good paper answers a good question really helped me to look at things differently. Also looking for your answer in your source's helped a lot. It allows you able to save a lot of time when you know what information you are looking for.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that I would necessarily change my process of writing. Although I need to would on my inside out drafting.
I learned a lot about the health related side effects of steroid use. I always knew there is not much good that could come from them, but this paper taught me much more in depth. I also see now when you research you have to have an open mind. Because many common believes you may have pior to research are often not always correct.
While researching my topic there were various skills and techniques I used to help me save time. One being annotating. This technique saved me lots of time when I was reading various articles on the database.Another method that helped me save time while writing my paper is of course pre- writing. Pre-writing gave me a chance to gather my thoughts and organize them before writing them down. While doing my research paper i took notice tht finding all my information was harde than I thought. Not to say it was something i couldnt do, but i just underestimated the amount of work and effort i had to actually put into it. If i could go back and revise something I would change the amount of effort I put into my research. I wouldve tried to find more primary sources as oppoesed to secondary. From my research I have learned that povrty has been around for years. What may seem appealing to the eye is not so. Even though minimum wage is being raised, it doesnt take people out of poverty. It just allows them to barely makes ends meet. People are still living form check to check. What I learned about researching is it definitly takes time. You have to give yourself enough time to thoroughly read over your sources.
ReplyDeleteOne technique that helped me to write my research paper was the inside out method. I was able to stay on topic a lot easier. Another technique that I used was the time saving method. By reading the introduction and conclusion I was able to know if the material was useful. An area that I could improve when writing a research paper is to work on it a little at a time.By walking away and reflecting on what I wrote would help me to revise more often and have a better paper in the end. I learned that cell phones can offer many features in classrooms. I learned that parents that are allowing their children to have cell phones are the ones that do not want them to be banned in schools. Kids are adapting to the rules more so than the parents are. After terroist attacks and more shooting in public areas parents like to get ahold of their children at all times. I learned that prewriting is definately necessary!
ReplyDeleteThe two main things methods I used during researching for my paper was using the annotation method and the time saving method. Both help greatly when you use them together. You can find better sources and more of them faster. It really helps a lot. The one thing I learned earlier was the use of search engines advanced search features which help greatly. I can find certain things using symbols and by adding filters (I left a link for a pretty good guide if any wanted know googles syntax). Between these using these two methods its pretty easy to get sources for your paper. All that’s really left is sorting out the mess that you have, so I did a inside out style of modeling my paper. It was good because I had a lot of info and I wanted to sift through a bunch of things and figure out how I wanted to write my essay. I learned that using these methods will give you a better paper faster (well the inside out took a while for me to get used to).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html
The four steps of annotation and the inside out writing method helped me the most when writing my research paper. In the past I would read documents from beginning to end to see if they were suitable documents to use for research. Annotating helped me pinpoint useful, relevant and credible information in a matter of minutes. Instead of spending hours and hours reading information that in the end may not be even be used in a paper. Bracketing and underlining techniques used in annotating were especially helpful when building my body paragraphs as they gave me the ability to reflect back on each research document’s main points and organize them in a useful, structured fashion. I think annotating is probably the most useful tool that I have used and don’t think I would change a thing about the way I used it. Writing papers will always be a time consuming and painful process but tools like annotation will help a great deal when used correctly. Through my research, I learned a lot about the topic I chose to write about. There is a lot of information available to support different opinions on any given topic. I learned that you need solid, credible sources of information to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of a topic.
ReplyDeleteSome of the techniques that helped me write my paper was opening a new word document for every new topic that is mentioned. Finding and locating the information I tried a few different techniques and it had worked. When I was originally trying to locate different information I was searching too broadly, and then I had narrowed my search and it was easier for me to write my paper. Doing these skills and techniques I know had helped me because I found all the information I was looking in a faster time period.
ReplyDeleteA couple of things that I would like to improve on in my research paper are separating paragraphs into topics, and also arranging paragraphs in a more organized manner. I probably wouldn’t change the thought process of this essay in any way.
I learned some of the things about my topic as I was going through the writing process. One of the things that I had come to realize was that my thesis wasn’t expanded enough to the point where I was able to write a paper on it, so what I did was I expanded my thesis even more. One of the problems that I had with researching my topic was that I was looking at some off topic key words and that I was getting too much of the same information on my topic from different authors.
1) In my paper i used the saving time method to help me focus my ideas onto certain aspects of my sources and keep the paper in topic and to the point.
ReplyDelete2) Although the saving time method helped i would still like to revise my efforts to be even more focused. i have always had trouble with bringing information together concisely.
3) From this project i learned about Obama's idea to have schools and other learning organizations receive cell phones for only 6 dollars a month. I learned that research is more than just choosing a topic and deciding that's it i got my sources and writing it.
1) The time saving method helped me greatly. As in life, anything that can reduce the waste of my time is a great asset to me. The inside out writing also was on great help with my thesis. I had most of my paper written and could fashion my thesis around it.
ReplyDelete2) Even with all the time saving methods I still tend to have a hard time interpreting the authors words into my own. I have a hard time balancing my own ideas with the research.
3) My topic was on cellular phones in a classroom. I knew they were making many advances in the technology, but I was not so aware of the idea of implementing them into schools. I learned that I needed to learn to better balance my own ideas with my research.
I used some time saving techniques while researching for my paper. Once I had my sources I used annotation and pre-writing to help me write. I could improve the amount of time I use to find the research. All my sources had the same ideas towards why cell phones should be used in the classroom and I could have put in some extra effort to possibly find a source that had a different view towards my topic.
ReplyDeleteI learned that cell phones can be a great way to increase students interest in learning. I actually had no idea that some schools were allowing cell phones in the class room. I also learned that there are many different resources out there that can help me find a source for a writing assignment, and that our schools library website is a great place to start looking!
I think what made my paper the most successful is that I have experience using a cell phone just as everyone does, and I could tie my personal experiences into my research paper. I believe being able to reflect and write about something you have to have some type of idea/interest in it to make it as successful as it needs to be....Even with all the techniques we learned I still had alittle trouble writing my paper, as I did with the last one. All these techniques really make me think about what I want to say before I say it which may be funny but is alot harder then you think. Ive been writing one way for so long and now im learning something new and its just taking some time to adjust, and some things that I learned about the cell phones in the process is that not only is it a good learning technique, it also has its dangers.
ReplyDeleteWith preparing for my research paper, I found myself using the time-saving method. This method was very helpful because it allowed me to find the information I needed for my paper without spending countless hours doing so. I also used the inside-out method process when it came time to writing the paper. As I said before I did not use the process due to frustration and not enough time. However, I certainly used it with this paper and found it alot easier in putting it together. I think that if you are able to inside-out draft starting with your body paragraphs first then coming up with the intoduction and conclusion is a piece of cake.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I would improve about the process is getting started on my research earlier and take advantage of the extra time we were given to write the paper. By this I mean we had an entire week (spring break) to get ahead of the game in which I did a little research. But, next time I will take full advantage of any extra time given so that I am not craming and staying up half the night putting things together.
One thing that I have learned about my topic during this research process is that although something may seem potentially positive for a certain group of people, it also brings with it, negative outcomes and disadvantages. What I learned about researching/writing this paper is that it wasn't as hard as I expected when I first learned of the type of assignment we would be doing. At first I thought, Oh My God, but with help from Professor Snow on how to break this paper down really made it bearable to accomplish. For so many years I've been taught how to write a certain way, but through this class I've learned that there are different methods of putting a paper together. I never really enjoyed English class throughout my high school years but now that I'm older and my priorities have changed I really have enjoyed taking this class. I hope to take these skills I've learned with me and apply them with whatever other classes I enroll in, in the future.
I guess it was the time saving method. I scanned through the articles looking for key words instead of reading the whole thing. It helped me so I wouldn't have to spend as much time on it.
ReplyDeleteI've been having trouble with my thesis. I've always had trouble coming up with a thesis. I would revise and fix that if I knew what to change it into.
I learned it takes a lot of effort in finding articles. Because a lot of the articles i clicked on were saying the same facts and ideas which made it harder in making my paper long enough. I learned that there are advantages to using cell phones related to school. But i also learned that its both good and bad on both sides of the cell phone argument
Some techniques and skills that helped me while researching for my paper were the time saving method and personal experience. I know these helped me because without them i think i wouldnt know where to begin or be able to relate to the topic. I would like to improve my introduction and conclusion skills for writing a paper. I learned that my topic is becoming a more and more common thing. For example i notice in my dentists office alot of advanced technology i never seen there before and i think were going to see it spread into classrooms, homes, and other offices of business. I learned when writing a research paper that it is important to not be so focused on the final paper and draft it until it is the best it can be.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that helped me the most with this paper is actually gathering the information basing what I gathered on my question. Before, I would just gather anything that seemed like it would help, and that led to a big unorganized messy paper. I know that these skills helped my project be more successful because I compared them to previous papers that I have written and I could tell the difference in several areas. I would like to improve my process by the time. Now, each step didn’t take a significant amount of time, however, the way that I planned them did. I simply could have sat down and done all the steps consecutively and gotten in done a lot quicker, however I did them all at separate times. I learned that several people have so many different ideas about using cell phones as a learning technique, that one way or another, a combination of any of them would easily make this idea possible. I definitely learned an easier way to look, gather, and organize my writing as a part of completing this project.
ReplyDeletethe technique I used to used was topic sentence and the in-side out method I learned in class it help me to organize and stay focused on the topic better. However I know that I need to impove on how to write resech paper better but I am glad that I had such a wonderful teacher to teach me Professor Snow and I am not just saying He is a excellet teacher and he has good humor.
ReplyDeleteThe new skills I have learned in class really helped me with my research paper. The annotation process and also the time saving technique for finding the information really helped me to locate and organize my information. I know these skills improved my writing because they were the main problem with my writing before. I never had a routine when it came to gathering and organizing information for research papers which always lead to a big mess in the end. The one thing that held me back this time was not choosing the right topic for me. I originally chose the sports story to work from which got me no where as soon as I re-read the articles you gave me I knew the cell phone issue was the one for me. It really makes a huge difference to have the right topic for yourself. Other than that I just want to continue to practice the skills you taught us because I know after a bit more practice it will become even easier and improve my writing even more. Through most of my high school and now college life, cell phones have been a huge problem in school and there were strict rules and phones were even confiscated in highschool, so I never thought it was possible for them to be a positive thing for students in the classroom. I think it is a great idea for cell phones to be used academically because students relate so well with them but I also realize the very fine line between benefitial and harmful. Im concerned that cell phones will never be able to be used as a helpful tool in the classroom because there will always be those few kids to take advantage and ruin it for the rest of the students. Other than what I have learned about my topic I have learned that I don't have to dread research papers, and avoid them or put them off. I have learned skills that will make it so much easier and much more enjoyable in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe time saving method helped me and the four steps of annotating. I know it helped because I didnt have to sit around writing my paper full of non sense that I would have most likely been getting off the top of my head.
ReplyDeleteI would like to improve my skill on microsoft and with computers period, so I dont write a paper and lose all my information when saving it. I would revise the process. I learned equally there is no solution for what all teachers should do in a classroom with cell phone usage because all people have different ways of thinking and using technology. A student could use it completely only school related while in class while others could just be texting about how they need to get their nails done. I learned faster ways of getting my information without reading texts with no help in what i need for my answers.
The technique that helped me the most was the annotating. This helped me take the main ideas out of the articles that i was using and better developed my paper. Another technique that sounds simple and obvious but i never thought of was when running out or things to say in a paper just use another sourced article. This little trick could have saved me so much time last semester but im glad i know it now. What i learned from my paper is that i need to blend my ideas a little better and maybe explain just a little more in depth what im am trying to say within my papers. Overall from the paper and class i have learned to be a better writer and the techniques learned from this class will help me excel through out college.
ReplyDeleteThe methods that helped me the most was the time saving method. It helped me find information a lot faster. Prewriting helped me probley the most. It helped me put my idea's out to where I could see them and get them oragnized. I would like to become better at this process so it does not take me as long to get my ideas down and have them make more since. I however learned that having my ideas down where I can put them in oreder are very helpful and make the writing process much more easy.
ReplyDeleteThe different ways for searching for information helped me find sources quickly and easily. I did not pre-write for this paper because I wrote an article about the living wage in high school and was also in an economics class, so the ideas i had about this topic were already right on the tip of my tongue. I learned that sometimes articles aren't very well written so you have to look around to find good sources to contrast the different ideas about a certain topic, and i also learned helpful ways to organize information to make the writing process faster and easier. The only thing i would do differently in the future is if i am given a topic i am not familiar with i will pre-write, this was an exception simply because i was previously familiar with the topic i chose.
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