Reflective Writing for Research Paper

Goals: How did I do with the goals I set? Why didn’t I achieve my goals? Which goals were most useful to me? Which didn’t really help?

I actually did really well with my goals. I made a goal to get my outline created and have things written already for each bullet at least a week before it was due and I had that completed a week and a half before. That was probably the most helpful goal just because I had about half the paper done super early. I had a goal to read my sources thoroughly really early on, however that didn't really happen until I was actually writing the paper. I only had a basic knowledge of each source for my outline.

Quality: Where in the writing do I feel most confident? Where am I weakest? What would I change if I had more time? What am I most proud of?

I am most confident about my use in the sources because I made sure that each quote directly tied to what I was talking about at that moment and that it fully supported my argument and help move it along. I am probably weakest at writing formally and making sure not to be repetitive. I would probably change the order of my paragraphing as well if I had more time.

Writing Processes: What writing process did I use to write this? How well did it work for me? What needs to change, moving forward?

My process worked pretty well actually. I figured out what I wanted my paper to be on and then I found some awesome sources that would help me with it. I read through those sources quickly and got the basic idea of what each one was about and wrote a paragraph about it to help me remember what each was about. I then came up with what I wanted my argument to be and devised how I could use each source to work through my points from there.

What I learned: What did I learn from this writing task? What was the hardest part? What’s something new I’m taking away from it? What part of the process interested me the most? What did my instructor do to help me learn? What did my instructor do that wasn’t effective and didn’t help me learn?

I learned that I'm not very good at keeping my writing formal. I often use second person terms and it's just a matter of rewording to fix it. The hardest part was honestly just getting my thoughts down onto the page in tandem with my sources. I loved that my professor made a powerpoint to help us use our sources throughout our writing.

How to apply what I learned: How will I apply what I learned from this writing task to future writing tasks (in my major, for example, or in the workplace)? What new goals will I want to set?

I will definitely be using what I've learned in this research paper in my major because I'm going into psychology and I'm going to have to write a lot using credible sources while also being able to distinguish what in those sources is helpful for my argument and what would be unnecessary. I would definitely want to have a deeper knowledge of what I'm writing about in the future before I decide to write about it.