Write a short reflection (approx. 150-200 words) on the research process and what you learned. In your reflection, consider the following questions: What did you find difficult about doing this type of research? What did you find surprising among the things you discovered through you research? In doing this type of research, what did you learn that you can take to future classes?
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Course Description: A course in effective essay writing and basic research techniques including use of the library. Demanding readings assigned for classroom discussion and as a basis for essay writing
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Ursula C. Schwerin Library
New York City College of Technology, C.U.N.Y
300 Jay Street, Library Building - 4th Floor
Acknowledgments
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It felt good to do research on a topic that I was interested in when I was young, and it felt good to educate myself on things I didn’t know before. Something that was difficult about writing this research paper is that it was hard to make it 1500 words. Finding the information and explaining it was easy, but it didn’t make it to 1500 words. Something I found surprising in my research was that America knew a plane was going to be involved in a 9/11 but they didn’t know it was going to crash into a building. Something that was also surprising was that 11 out of the 19 terrorists didn’t know it was a suicide mission.
During my research process I learned how vast the internet really is. There is a wide selection of information to choose from, that seems never ending. This is one of the things I found difficult in doing the research for my essay. It was quite hard trying to find trustworthy sources other than history channel, since a lot of the websites names’ I have never heard so I wasn’t sure if they were trustworthy or not. The internet holds a lot of information, but it also holds a lot of either misinformation or biased information so you need to be careful when doing research for a topic. I did find interesting info about my topic, the Aztecs which was how advanced their society was for their time. They excelled in agriculture, and had a wide variety of produce. It felt like I went through a journey while doing my research, which was cool. Doing this research helped me understand to always know where I get my information from, to make sure its not biased or false. I also learned to use our school library which was a big help, and learning to give credit to my sources.
In my experience in this, looking for research isn’t the hard part, finding the ones that are the most significant to your question is. The surprising thing I found was that body language and tone are very important (You guys probably know that but still). All I know is that this is kinda practice for other assignments like this to know how to research properly.
Something I found difficult with this type of research is when I was using the library, it seemed like the sources were not always related to what I was looking for. Some sources I found were really irrelevant to my search filter. Also, the library website is kind of annoying to use because you would constantly need to click multiple links in order to get to the actual text, or you would have to download, some books were not online so the only option was to go to the actual library which for me is inconvenient since I live far from colleges. I also found a mental block from high school where I am used to only using a few sources, I wanted to keep finding more and more sources and hit a mental block of if I should or should keep finding more sources. I learned how only about 30 people died as a result of the 2 biggest nuclear reactor meltdowns. I learned that google is my friend and that sources are easier to find than the library. I learned how to use the library/CUNY libraries.
During the process of my research paper, one of the first things I had a challenge on was finding a topic that was sufficient to write about, having ground to research and cover and be informative. Through reading articles about the death penalty, there was a connection between the criminals justice system, crime rates and along with that, and the discrimination behind it. After, when finding the topic of the ” death penalty” another difficult part was organizing my thought and information I had discovered. I didn’t want to speak of different things all at once and not have an objective, being able to make a point. In addition, having to avoid making it sound like an argumentative essay and not be biased about one side. Although through my research, I’ve learned many things concerning the death penalty, my thinking stayed the same, but couldn’t let my cloud of judgment speak louder. Thus, I learned through this research experiences the importance of argumentative vs. research.