Reflection on Project 1

For this blog post provide a quick reflection on what I have learned from completing my first project for this class.  Included in my reflection will be answers to specific questions.

Prabhu B. "Reflections on still water are an example of specular reflection". 19 July 2007 via Wikipedia CC BY 2.0

What challenges did you face during the Quick Reference Card project and how did you deal with them?
At first, when I began researching for sources to be used in my quick reference guide, I found more sources that were from a much longer time ago (10 years may seem like a lot for this topic).  Then as narrowed my search for specific information that I would use in guide, I was able to find sources that were more credible than others.  Another challenge that I faced was being able to find different major speakers in my controversy.  Instead of using individual people as examples, I used major organizations/businesses/group of people as the major speakers in my guide.  Though this may not be the conventional way of including people in a paper, I found that including a group or group of individuals seemed to provide better analysis in my paper.

What successes did you experience on the project and how did they happen?
Once I was able to find a good amount of sources after researching my controversy, I was able to incorporate many great viewpoints into my paper from these sources.  Providing different viewpoints into a single paper, in my opinion, is a helpful tool to give readers a more informative view of what it is they are reading.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find the most effective for your project?  Why?
I found summarizing the main points made in each source that I used helped me use specific topic statements that could then include information separated into small paragraphs.  Utilizing small paragraphs in individual topic sections, I thought, helped give readers to opportunity to view different points made by different sources that could combined into a topic section that is informative while at the same time keeping it quick and to the point.  Providing specific statistics in a many of my sources helped formulate a stronger argument in my paper showing how vaccines can be seen to have a beneficial use rather than a destructive one.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find were not effective for your project?  Why?
In my first draft of the quick reference guide, I included a figure that contained a graph showing different religions involved with the use of exemptions from vaccinations.  After giving this idea some thought, I believe it was necessary that I did not include this figure, let alone the section it was in because it seemed to stray away from the other topics in the guide, and did not flow well with the rest of the paper.

How was the writing process for this project similar to other school writing experiences you've had in the past?
The only similarity I found by doing this quick reference guide is that the English teachers I have had in the past let me choose individual topics revolving around a recent controversy.  They also let choose my own sources rather than give me and my peers limited options that they thought would be helpful.  I learned starting in my later years in high school that the more freedom I was given to write about what I thought was important to the country, rather than my teachers choosing for me, helped me think in a larger view when it comes to writing about what is important to me.

How was the writing process for this project different to other school writing experiences you've had in the past?
The only minor difference that I experienced in this project than others in the past was the previously my teachers had students utilize different sources in our essays, but never specifically told us to write a quick reference, and instead just called them essays.  I view a quick reference guide as a more informative and at the same time a simple way to provide readers with helpful information.

Would any of the skills you practiced for this project be useful in your other coursework?  Why or why not?
My goal is to work in a research laboratory the entire time I am an undergraduate student.  While I am researching and learning from a professor, my ideal goal is to publish a paper.  By already completing the first project I have already gained helpful skills that would make my writing influential and impress professors with my ability to incorporate many sources and utilize them to help me publish a scientific paper.