Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Reflecting on writing your literature review
As we start class today, please reflect on your literature review. What did you learn from this writing assignment? What do you think you did well? What was the most challenging part of writing this essay? If you had one more day to work on it, what could you still improve on?
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When we were first given this assignment, I had a bit of a procrastination problem. Once I talked to Professor Bateman, He taught me about a matrix that I could set up to organize my paper. Once I set up the matrix, this paper got a LOT easier! I was able to organize my thoughts and move forward with my paper. Once I got over the initial hump of starting the project, I actually grew to enjoy doing my research. The most challenging part about this essay was purely starting it...
ReplyDeleteI would like to be able to connect the ideas brought up by my sources in order to make my paper more effective. I would also like to be able to use APA correctly.
At the beginning, I struggled with this assignments because I was using too much of my own voice, in addition to summarizing the articles as my claims instead of finding commonalities between the articles and forming claims from there. I had to reread the articles and make a chart of my paragraphs in order to form my three claims. I wanted to incorporate multiple articles in each paragraph, and I think I ended up picking claims that really worked.
ReplyDeleteI changed my thesis from a more persuasive statement to one that reflected on all of my research. I worked on removing my "own voice" from the piece and used the articles to show examples of my claims instead. I think the most challenging part was determining the claims and choosing what examples to support them, but after that the essay was not hard to compose. I am really proud of the work I put into the essay, but if I had one more day, I would work on some of the sentence structures to make them more clear.
The most beneficial strategy I learned while writing this paper was a way to organize my writing. Prior to our meeting I was really unsure of an effective way to organize my paper and I left the meeting with a great option. I feel that this paper was one of the most effectively written papers that I have completed all year, however, I feel that my second body paragraph is the weakest. When I went back and looked at my five sources I noticed that the fifth source did not tie into my paper as well as I would have liked. I tried to make it the most general perspective in the paper and get more specific as the paper continued, but in doing so, the second paragraph became almost obsolete and useless. If I was given one more day I would probably find another source and see how I could more effectively relate it to the other parts of the piece. Finding a way to use this fifth source was probably the most difficult part of writing the piece, however, that really should not have been the case if I had done better research.
ReplyDeleteI learn from this writing assignment is to be more precise on my citations. I think I did well on picking out the quotes and citing my main claim. Although I am not so sure if I was suppose to critique other styles of writing. I often get extremely confused on where my name and everything goes, does it go on left hand side or right hand side? The essay was challenging because I know my topics extremely well, but there isn’t much study done on the topic. Therefore if I had one more day to work on it I would want to go over my essay again to correct grammar and add more research work into the paper.
ReplyDeleteThis assignment for me was much less difficult than i made it to be in the beginning. I think what i learned from it was the importance of precision and acuracy which is key in research, and also how to really be just a reporter of the research I found as opposed to agreeing or disagreeing. I think what i did well was presenting different sides of the case of homelessness, rehab, and drug abuse. The most challenging part was just having to make sure that the technical stuff was all correct, it was so time consuming i feel but i understand the importance of it. I could still improve on the techincal stuff because i am sure i still had errors and also i wish i had more research to report on.
ReplyDeleteIn comparison to the Ragged Dick piece, I found that I struggled much more with the literature review simply because I found it to be more demanding. Unlike the previous paper, this piece required that I keep my opinion to myself - and anyone who knows me knows that I love to share my thoughts. This was less about what I perceived and more about what I found, and I struggled with maintaining my focus for this paper. Also, although I believe I did a decent job by the end of it, I struggled with sorting my sources and finding matching themes throughout. From this assignment, I learned how to locate big-picture ideas and piece together themes from different sources. I think I was able to condense my ideas effectively. For me, the most challenging aspect of this essay was putting everything together without losing my focus. If had another day to work on this piece, I would try to improve on the flow and transitions I used in my writing, just to make everything meshes together well. After all, I believe the goal here was to find a nice way to synthesize my ideas.
ReplyDeleteIn this assignment I learned to synthesize different studies together and try to create meaning out of this synthesis. I was lucky in that most of my studies drew pretty similar conclusions so the organization of my paper pretty fell into place pretty easily. However one thing that I found the most difficult was the creating meaning out of these similar conclusions. It took a very long time to piece everything together and make the essay seem coherent and like it had a point. I even started with a lot of research that was about totally different topics and it took a lot of trial and error to come up with a question that I could find enough research on and had interest in. If I had another day to work on it I would probably do some improvements on the overall style of the paper and clean up some of the sentences a bit. I think I could still improve on finding more meaning and drawing more conclusions from the data.
ReplyDeleteFor this essay I really felt that I learned a lot about the prison system strips down ex-offenders to be unable to function on the outside. It was especially challenging to write about this because I’ve experienced it first hand with my family. I think for this particle essay I found excellent research that really confirmed a lot about how the correctional system isn’t working in order to rehabilitate these people. Tying all the information together was little difficult but with working through it, it became easier to see how all the data is relatable. I really think the most challenging part of the essay though was not allowing my personal opinion or any “fluff” to come through. Editing the paper the first time I realize how many preconceived notions I already had on the subject, and that I needed to step back and write what experts have determined. I think if I had one more day to work on it I would really like to tighten up some of the diction I used and make it perfect, also edit the APA because I had a lot of difficulties with it.
ReplyDeleteHere's Briana's comment:
ReplyDeleteThis is the style of writing that I enjoy, and love doing. I really enjoyed writing this paper because I know that I will be able to apply the information that I learned while writing my paper in my home community. I have worked with APA before, but it was good to have a refresher on citation style. I think my paper was strong and had good sources and used those sources to present a holistic picture of rural homelessness. I know that my transitions were much smoother and the sequence of the paper was much more logical than in my last paper. For me, the most challenging part of the essay was simply reviewing the literature and not trying to apply it to all different situations and extrapolate further than the authors did. If I had another day to work on my paper, I would put in a few more details in some of my body paragraphs and I would tighten up my intro paragraph.
I learned that it can be difficult to draw away from my tendency to analyze sources. Most of my English classes in high school focused on analytical writing or creative writing rather than synthesis work. In some history classes we would synthesize sources, but it had been a long time since I had practiced this type of writing. This literature review taught me the importance of revision and reevaluation of writing. When I first began writing this assignment, I was focused more on analyzing each specific source rather than creating main claims related to my research. Even though I developed a few main claims, I was trying to describe distinguishing factors from each source which ended up really drawing away from question of what motivates people to volunteer. After writing an unorganized, busy draft, I completely reworked my paper into a more structured literature review rather than a complicated evaluation of multiple sources. I think that I did a good job synthesizing the sources into my claims once I finally shifted to a more focused view of the motives related to religious and nonreligious volunteers. By creating a more focused literature review, I was able to more describe the more in-depth motives for volunteering. Still, if I had one more day to work on my paper I would want to improve my conclusion. I wanted to find a way to connect religion to motivation while still providing a new aspect to look at, but I feel like I may have moved too far away from my original question. Overall, I now realize that while I had some challenges in research writing, once I reevaluated the structure I was able to create a more focused paper.
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot about synthesis while working on this paper. It was challenging to break the mold of the typical five-paragraph essay (meaning something along the lines of intro → source → source → source → conclusion). I think that I usually go about writing in a manner in which I decide on what claim I would like to make and then seek out sources and information that would specifically back up my point. In this paper we had to think of a topic to pursue (maybe have a question in mind), then read a variety of sources on the subject and we were supposed to structure our claim and our papers from the themes that occur in these sources. Clearly this was not my usual method, so it was something of a stretch at first. I think that in the end it all came together and I was able to connect all of my sources and claims in a suitable way , even though all the topics did not connect instantaneously as I was researching. If I had one more day to work on this paper I think I would add another section, another layer of analysis that would talk about general effects on families that researchers picked up on just through interviewing homeless families, no matter what the topic. This would perhaps add a general summation almost (of all the ideas that were previously discussed) before I closed the paper.
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot about the social structure of homelessness and why it is so difficult to exit homelessness through my literature review. I became aware of why substance use is more prevalent in the homeless community through my discovery that it is a norm of the culture. I think that I was able to make improvements in this paper that I learned from the feedback on the last paper. I also think that I did a good job of synthesizing information, but this was also the most challenging part of the paper for me. I can still work on being more thorough in my research, and probably in my analysis too.
ReplyDeleteI am extremely happy with the topic that I chose to write about for this paper. I learned a lot of surprising information about substance abuse in the homeless community. There were several topics I researched that truly “hit home” for me and made me want to research more. I think I delivered the information well and did a good job on my research. The most challenging part of this essay was the actual writing process. I am extremely used to using voice and character in my writing, so it was hard not to write from my perspective and strictly deliver the facts. If I had another day I would work on my conclusion section and think about ways to improve my research.
ReplyDeleteFor this paper I feel that I have completely taken out the “fluff” and personal voice in my writing. I am really excited because I have always struggled with not using metaphors and other symbols for my writing. I know that my paper is concise and follows the research that I have found. Never having done APA citing I learned how to be flexible and adjust to a new way to cite sources. I liked the challenge of learning something new. I think I could better help the flow of my quotes so that my paper has a more fluid read. It is predictable and I do not like that but I worked really hard on organization to help with keeping the “fluff” out. I think more so than writing this paper I struggled with researching this paper because of my experience with Veterans and all that my experience has taught me. I had trouble disconnecting myself, my family, and especially my father to our experience with the VA and the trauma that comes with services. I often would feel anger towards the statistic that I knew I was a part of.
ReplyDeleteThis paper taught me several things. First, it taught me that I need to step back and see the big picture. Secondly, I learned that for my personal researching and writing style, writing summaries of studies does not help me to write a synthesis. Next time, I might try making notecards of key statements, facts, examples, as I go through the reading. This way I can move the notecards around, sort them into piles indicating a trend, ecetera, rather than having to keep going back to the primary source and look for a quote I remembered reading or a nugget of information I want to incorporate. Thirdly, this paper taught me the general structure of a literature review and introduced me to APA citation.
ReplyDeleteOh and I learnt a lot about homeless individuals and the sucky environment/factors they have to face in order to get decent food (I feel like sucky is probably really poor worc choice but I just can't think of another word that sums it up better).
I think I organized my paper well but struggled in balancing summarization with precision. A lot of my statements felt vague to me; "These three studies suggest...." Should I have specified which three studies suggested something?
As far as what I would improve if I had one more day, I would write a better conclusion. I feel like I just sort of tacted another research question onto the end of my last body paragraph.