Now that youāre working on your first draft of your final research project, it is time to revisit a couple of questions regarding this project to see how your thinking about it has changed and evolved since you started thinking about this topic. In your free write today, write an abstract (description/summary of your project) that answers the following questions, not listed one by one (like Question>>Answer, Question>>Answer), but in paragraph (more of a narrative) form. Your description should describe your project to anyone potentially interested in your topic who might want to learn more about it. Our writing activities have been similar to this for the past week and a half or so, and the reason is that I really want you to think about how your research topic connects to you personally and why you care about it (even if that means writing about the fact that your research topic will lead to the kind of good job that you want). Iām not afraid of repeating, if the reflection clarifies our ideas to ourselves! Here are the questions to address, in narrative form:
- How did you decide upon your research topic? Be specific.Ā
- In what way do you feel personally connected to your topic (i.e. why do you care about it)?Ā
- Provide a 1-2 sentence statement of what you want to teach your audience (the most important thing you learned in the Reflective Annotated Bibliography in Unit 2)Ā
- What is the specific audience you are trying to reach (I know youāve shared this with me, but Iām wondering if your ideas have changed or evolved since you started. āEveryoneā is not a sufficient answer) and why they should care?Ā
- The genre you are planning to write in and why you chose it (some of you have changed your genre)Ā
- A plan ā now that youāve written your first draft, how do you think you can improve this project?
- Anything you might be worried about.Ā What are your concerns about finishing this project?Ā
I choose this topic because I don’t see people or news channels talking about it much. This is a real life problem and it should be recognized. I’m not personally connected to this topic, but I think that it should be talked about it more, that’s why I choose this topic. I want to teach my audience about how affective war can be on children. How they can develop serious mental health issues, like anxiety, depression or PTSD. The specific audience I’m trying to reach is families that have been there before or families that are going through it. Also families that are interested in this topic and trying to help. I choose to do a news report. I choose this genre because I think is the best way to educate people about what’s going on in Palestine. I can improve my project by adding more details and more information. I’m not really concern about finishing my project, I think I’m in a good start.
I decided to write about something Iām very passionate about which is space related things. I always like to think about future technology how things could make life easier for humans, and also things that can preserve our well being. My topic is mars exploration, itās the beginning to discovering another planet outside of ours. This investigation helps us understand how planets work and what is habitable for living things. It also opens another door for us future generations if everything turns right would be able to have 2 planets as home and continuing human exploration all over space. This for me is the reason I chose this topic because Iām very science and technology based, itās just always good to know the logic for anything which science does and technology opens so many doors for us. (Just a quick example look how phones make our lives easier every day.) We can expand on that in the future. The connection I have with this topic is my love for technology and science also the curiosity. What I want to teach my audience is showing them how important and interesting space actually is. Is a way of expanding our influence out there while discovering many things that can possibly benefit us. What I learned from research Iāve done is how amazing and massive space actually is, and how expanding seems logical, for example whatās happening today with global warming is dangerous if we make it to a new planet that we could stay we can restart over not make humanity mistakes again like pollution, wars, etc. Also again possible to find new technology in new planets that we can use. This is why I really emphasize how important space exploration is and I would like more people to be interested specifically my teen age audience, so they can be the ones in the future to make a change and continue expanding on the idea of exploring space and discovering new technology. The genre Iām trying to reach my audience is informative presentation. I want to use this because the audience im trying to reach learn and find it more engaging if thereās pictures on it that can help them see what Iām trying to show with those images. I feel like images can help a lot more than just plane text because images really helps you see how things really happen or things look, and it makes you feel pathos, and logos. Seeing something could make you feel it more rather than just reading and also seeing proof of images can really make my audience think oh yeah this looks very fun and it makes sense I want to get in to this field in the future. Thatās what Iām trying to achieve. What I want to improve is using less text and use more effective images so I can really show what I mean just making it more interesting and informative as possible. My concern is that my audience might not find it as fun as ai imagine because as of now people may think that space is not really important at the moment when thereās poverty, war, and disease going on, and because itās really expensive, but Iām trying prove or at least expose in this project that space is important and that anyone that really is interested in it thereās a lot of fields for it that pay well and itās the future very growing in demand, and also itās the next step for humanity to look out there outside of earth and regain ourselves again and not make the mistakes weāve done here on planet earth.
I feel personally connected to this topic because I constantly saw and heard about these types of issues in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. I care about it because I think everyone deserves a peaceful life without prejudice just because of their past, nationality, heritage, or skin complexion. I decided this topic for my unit 2 and 3 because last semester I took an African Folklore class, Haiti was one of the chapters of the class and it made me remind the situation that country has live, and a couple of days before we started talking about unit 2 and 3 a group of coworkers and I weāre talk about some issues in between both countries, so the topic was still vivid on my mind.
In this unit I try to teach my audience the history and differences between the Dominican Republic and Haiti and how both countries share the same island but have two different realities and histories. With this, the audience that I try to reach are people from Dominican or Haitian heritage that donāt know the events that had happened between both countries, and I personally know that there are a lot of Dominicans that donāt have the proper education and simply donāt know about it. To reach my audience effectively, Iām working with infographics, this is an easy way for my audience to learn about this topic. The colors, images, and texts can call everyoneās attention and read it. Working with this unit, I noticed that I should improve the organization of the subtopics and information on each infographic. Since the beginning, my concern has been not being able to complete the word count.
4 weeks ago we were asked to come up with a research question that interest us to discover and to search for an answer. At that time, when I heard the word āinterestā a lot of things, specifically issues came to my mind and thats how I ended up with my research topic entitled āWhat are the psychological effects of poverty in childhood in Manila, Philippinesā. I grew up in place in Manila called Quezon City, and there I witnessed poverty everywhere, children on streets asking for money or worse children who are stealing because they need money. I was deeply immersed with finding out the reason of poverty and how people cope with poverty, especially it is one of the biggest issue that my country is facing, the reason why I feel connected to my topic. While I was writing my unit 2, I learned few things that I can share with my audience that will shed light to their questions or curiosity. As I have said before I am interested on finding out how people cope with poverty, and I would like to share my answer with you, my audiences. With the use of Bayanihan or communal support, a lot of people in poverty were able to hold out from their situation because of their kindhearted fellow citizen who are willing to step out and give them assistance to help them survive with their day to day lives. There are also charity who extended their hands to help them. Beside this, I want to share this lesson as your takeaway from this unit, āPoverty is not just financial sufferingā, a lot of people think that the only problem people in poverty are facing are financial problems. But, thats not all, poverty also affects their mental health, overall well-being, access to bare minimum such as education and healthcare, and most importantly, poverty hinders them from having a better life. This research is directed to people who are interested in finding out how poverty affects the psychological well-being of an individual who suffers from poverty, educators, anti-poverty programs, lawmakers, parents, students, and news. They are probably the same audience who are interested on this topic, people who can help fund a charity to help people, and people who can build a bridge to help these people have a better future ahead of them. I decided to use documentary as my platform to express my writing, as I know that poverty is a wide topic and people will be able to easily understand and relate on my topic when I use videos of children who are suffering with poverty. As it will touch their emotions (pathos), and will allow their eyes and mind to be open about this severe issue. I actually finished my first draft and I believe that itās good. However, if I will receive feedbacks about it I will gladly take it to make my project more better. Thankfully, I didnāt have to deal with any problems for this unit, Iām just a little worried if my documentary is useful or helpful to show the effects of poverty.
When I started this project, I chose to focus on the effects of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela because itās something I know personally. As a Venezuelan, Iāve seen how these policies hurt regular people by making it harder to get food, medicine, and basic supplies. That personal connection is why Iām so passionate about raising awareness, especially for people who donāt know how much these policies affect everyday lives.
What Iāve learned is that sanctions are not achieving their political goals, and affecting venezuelan people rather than the government itself. I want to share that with students, activists, and anyone who cares about Latin America or international affairs. Itās important because understanding the real impact of these policies can lead to better, more informed conversations and maybe even push for change.
Iām using a website to share this info because it lets me combine text, images, and interactive tools to keep things engaging and easy to share. After finishing my first draft, I know thereās still work to do like adding more information, videos, and images with enough visuals to catch the audience’s attention.
Honestly, Iām a little nervous about making the topic clear and easy to understand without oversimplifying it. I also worry about meeting the deadline, but Iām confident that with more edits and feedback, Iāll be able to create something meaningful and impactful.
I chose my topic because it is something that since I was little I have been very interested in and it is something that I am proud of since it is something very characteristic of my country. The topic I chose is the Galapagos Islands, which is a natural reserve that seeks to preserve the lives of many species in danger of extinction in addition to being very famous for its flora and fauna. Something incredible about this place is that it is also well known for being a tourist place since, based on tourism, this reserve can remain standing thanks to donations from tourists and the inhabitants of the area themselves. I want to share this with people who love nature, animal lovers or helping the ecosystem, and especially with people who are interested in traveling to this spectacular island. I plan to share this information through a video that you will have on a well-known application, tiktok. One of my concerns is not being able to explain my topic well and the fact that the video will not be very long so I am worried that people will not understand or will not find the video interesting but I think that with the advice I can make this video very useful for many people.
How did you decide upon your research topic?
I didn’t have specific topic in my mind , I was put on spot to come up with a research topic out of the blue. So thought to myself, I loved history in high school , it was always interesting and beautiful subject, and I thought I would visit history once more for this assignment and then it hit me, I always wanted to visit San Francisco because it’s a beautiful city, and came across tragic event that took place in 1906 in San Francisco, while googling San Francisco and I thought it would be dramatic , interesting , educational and important piece of history of our great country that people could know about and how far San Francisco has come in all aspects. How this event reshaped approach to natural disasters and it’s prevention or mitigation.
2.In what way do you feel personally connected to your topic (i.e. why do you care about it)?
I never knew that there was such horrific earthquake that deconstructed such beautifully crafted city, but reason why it looks so memorizing as is today, it’s probably because it’s people were determined to build better , stronger and one of the most attractive cities in the nation, but reason why I’m connected to the topic is because I fell in love with the city through holly wood films, video games and books.
3.I’d say comprehend fact that to build or rebuild something as massive as the city , suddenly mother earth decides to shatter all that hard work that took probably a century , Earthquake destroys it in one day. Also teach anyone who hasn’t heard about this tragic event and it would be fun educational news.
4.Specific Audience. I would say teachers , students , journalists , geologists , fire fighters.
5.I wanted to do video essay but I might switch to photo essay , because it’s much simpler and less time consuming and I have most of the tools to compose the photo essay.
6.plan hasn’t arrived yet, it should be pretty straight forward, once I have my frame , I’ll be able to stitch it up.
7.Yes I’m always scared of writing material , thinking I might be making a mistake somewhere.
1-I came up with thus research topic because I wanted to understand the reason why this war has been lasting a few decades without showing signs of stopping
2- I felt really drown to this subject because peace and people’s lives matter to me .we live in a world where peace is in short supply.
3-i want my audience to learn about this war that became a genocide costing people’s lives and maybe wake them up to the fact that they need to look deeper in this great problem
4- my specific audience is the people who like me want this war to stop , those who don’t know but want to know but do not want to read hundred of books to get familiar with the cause of this war.
5- The genre I chose to challenge myself with is a poem because once again I have never done it and I don’t like to be comfortable in something I may know already but test myself in having no limits if I put my mind into it.
6-i plan to write a line or paragraph everyday in order to finish on time and give myself time to rewrite or revise it to make it better
7-Any worries I would possibly have is not doing a great job