Baltazar 1

Shirley Baltazar

Dr. Littlejohn

RCO 390-04

04 May 2021

Critical Reflection

Writing and Research

Now that my research has come to end, I am proud of how it came out. It all began with a

topic I always had in the back of my head. I didn’t think I would actually do research about it and

write about it. I also feel joy that it finally came to an end because it was exhausting at some

points. I really wanted to give up. I had moments of changing my topic and starting over. I also

had moments of just “bs-ing” it just so it can be done. At the end, I feel accomplished and hope

that the hard work paid off. Writing out my ideas and thoughts helped so much buecase I would

just think about it but I didn’t know how to put it on paper or how to make it seem meaningful

for everyone else. I am not the best at explaining things because I lack the “perfect” words and

phrases. By writing down my ideas, I can go back to it and take a look at it and make changes or

elaborate it. When working on my essay, I would do small sections that way I didn’t feel

overwhelmed or stressed. This helped get my thoughts in order. The research process began with

a sticky note filled with potential topics to write about until I narrowed it down to the topic I

chose for my research. After that, I did an outline of the requirements for the paper, my topic, my

thesis, and how I am going to break down my body paragraphs. Preparing an outline is important

when doing a research paper because there are a lot of ideas bouncing back and forth, there are
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ideas from evidence, and ultimately it helps to construct and organize those ideas in a sequential

manner and allows it to develop a flow. I have had experience doing research during my first

year. I was a biochem major at the time, and for our final exam, we had to write a 10 page

research essay. It was the hardest and most stressful assignment I’ve done. Although it was a

rough patch, it taught me how to do research and it became one of my strengths. It taught me

how to look for reliable sources and how to use that to my advantage. I used all the skills I

gained from the previous year to create this research project. Being a part of the research expo

felt very professional. What I mean by that is that it felt like I was writing for a group of

scientists. I wanted it to be perfect and understandable. I have had others read my paper and all

of them said that it sounded so professional, which made me feel achieved. Even though I didn’t

win the contest, being a contestant was a privilege. My writing process starts with prewriting so I

can get my ideas on the paper. In this step, there is no structure yet because I’m just writing, the

editing will come later. After prewriting, I do drafting. This where I create an outline with more

ideas and the plan of how I will arrange the paper, meaning the body paragraphs. This is also

where I write the whole paper. Once the paper is written, it needs to go through revising for

grammar issues and making sure it makes sense. The last step is editing. For this paper, I had a

peer review, so their input is reflected in the final paper. There are things that I liked about the

research process, for example the topic I chose. I like the topic I chose. At first, I wasn’t too sure

of it because it is not a topic that is talked about but I felt like it was my opportunity to do

research on it and make it available for others that are interested. I will probably change the way

I did fieldwork. I chose to do observations because I did not want to interact with the people I

was writing about, but the reason I would change this is because I feel like it would have added
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more reliability to my paper if I had done an interview. As a writer, I have strengths and

weaknesses. I am a perfectionist and an overthinker, these two characteristics are my strength

and weakness. It is a strength because I want my work to be the best and known. I overthink

every way to make it perfect and worth my time. It is my weakness because overthinking is very

time consuming and mentally draining. If I don’t like the results, I beat myself for it. I know I am

a great writer and that I will get better as the years go on. When it comes to addressing my

weaknesses, I have to remind myself that nobody's perfect and that my work is recognized. No

matter what grade I get, I know I did my best and that is enough. The relationship between

writing for school and writing for my future professional life is semi-existent. For my

professional life, I want to work in a hospital. I know there are plenty of doctors that write

research on medicine and new treatments, but I don’t want to do that. I plan to be a P.A.

(Physician Assistant) and this professional is more flexible. I want to work with people and help.

Despite that it does not tie in with my future professional life, having the skills of writing will

benefit me in any aspect of my life because it expanded my vocabulary and I will be able to help

others.

Final Website Project

When creating my website, I made intentional decisions. Since my topic revolved around

religion and church, I intentionally choose the font to be Times New Roman because that is the

same font used in the bible. It also added a sense of professionalism. I also kept the background

color white to represent purity. Little details like these go unnoticed but it was intentional. The

best part of making this website was knowing it was the last step of the research process. I did

not know how to make a website, I had my best friend help me and he taught me how to make it
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and how to make it look presentable. Working with him was the best part of creating the website.

Of course there were challenging moments. There are so many things you can add to a website,

there were a lot of options to choose from and it was hard because I am a picky person so I want

things a certain way and I want others to like it too. Also, I was stressed. Getting started was

stressful and it would make me angry that I couldn’t start it but with the help of my best friend it

got done. If I had more time to work on this project, I would change the way I did field work

because I wanted to have a one on one conversation with a member of the church and an

ex-member. This type of fieldwork is called an interview. I want to do this type of fieldwork

because having a conversation adds more reliability, and it get to know what the members are

thinking. This project has furthered my personal interest in religious scandals. These types of

issues are not really talked about within society, so I decided to read about it and eventually write

about it. For the particular project, I decided to do observations because I used to belong to the

church I observed, and I did not want to talk to them or interact with them. I would improve the

way I did observations. I did it in one setting and only for a couple days. If I could do more

observations, I would observe the members on social media. I want to see how they act and

respond on social media.

Strong College

Being a member of the Strong Residential College allowed me to make connections

within my building. There were people with different experiences and majors, and they would

offer their help with others. This was important to me because whenever I needed something or

someone needed something, we would help each other out. There was an occasion where I

needed help with a sociology assignment, and one of my suitemates was a sociology major so I
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asked her to help me with it. I was grateful that she knew how to do the assignment because I

was clueless. Knowing that there are people around you, literally a door away, can help you. If I

could do things differently about my experience at Strong College is how I approach people. I

consider myself an introvert, so I don’t like to approach people unless I need to. I would see

others talk and hang out, and I would just ask myself why couldn’t I do it. I could change

anything, it would definitely be to get out of my comfort zone. During my first year, I was in a

film class and for one of the assignments, I had to host a movie night for the whole class. I chose

a movie that depicted the hispanic Art culture. I was happy that people showed up, and were

enjoying the movie. I was proud of this moment because others were learning about my culture

and I got a good grade. Within my building there were clubs relating to the Black community

and the Hispanic community. I learned about the issues they’ve dealt with and how they feel

about it. There was one club that talked about Black women’s hair and the different hairstyles

and products they use. This club was really interesting because I have natural hair too, and

learning new ways to take care of my hair really helped.

Education & Studenthood

For this semester, I decided to come home because I got a job that paid enough for my

bills. It was not hard to adjust from being on campus to being at home because the previous

semester I had to do online school when we got sent back because of COVOID. I had a schedule

on when to do schoolwork, and it worked up until towards the end of the semester. I was feeling

really unmotivated, so I started turning in my assignments late or not even doing it. I was burnt

out, but I had my family and friends to push me to finish the semester strong. I am the type of

student that achieves for perfection. I also try to follow all the directions for my assignments so I
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can get a good grade. I have a lot of goals for myself as I pursue my education. I want to get

straight A’s at one point. I want to get a scholar recognition for my hard work. I hope to one day

earn a scholarship. I want to make more friends and connections. I hope to join a club relating to

medicine or my culture. I hope to get an internship. I want to study abroad in either Spain or

South Korea. When I aimed for straight A’s, I did all my assignments on time, and tried to follow

all the directions. The reason I didn’t get all A’s was because some of my classes were harsh

graders. I am still proud of my hard work. As of my other goals, I am still working on them.

Those are overall goals I plan to achieve throughout the next two years. I just hope people enjoy

reading my project.