6. Research Paper Reflection

The beast is slain. The largest writing project of my freshman year in college is done. Hallelujah! This research paper has been weighing on my mind for almost a month as I have gone through the process of finding a personal narrative to tie into my research, researched my topic, wrote a thesis, composed a rough draft, and edited a final. At least that was what the process was meant to be. What actually happened was a lot less pretty. I started researching my topic, only to find that there were few sources accessible to me that related well with my topic. I had already done research, found sources, and even written a thesis by this time. But when it came to writing a rough draft, I didn't have the knowledge or resources that fill the pages. So I had the opportunity to revisit my topic and expand my research. I think that by doing the annotated bibliography so soon, I was just looking for related articles to fill space. The real research fro my paper was done as I wrote my rough draft. I think that the way we went about writing this paper works extremely well if one is motivated in the beginning of the process. If one procrastinates, like I did, the process is a bit harmful. That being said, I still think I came out of it all with a very good essay.