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Lorenzo Luna
Dr. Sharity Nelson
ENGL 1302-223
10 March 2024
Reflection on Research Analysis
With every essay that has come my way has presented new challenges, yet the familiarity
with each one remains consistent which is something I find rather convenient. Piggybacking off
the first essay comes this essay in which I performed analysis on my research conducted for my
annotated bibliography. Throughout the process I feel more readily prepared for my other
courses in regards to finding research topics and being able to draw similarities between each
article. Something I learned was the ability to really “hone in” and find keywords or ideas that
seem to be repeated across various sources. They help me create mental bookmarks of my
research and help me further advance in my ongoing research related to sports related
concussions. I feel like I can apply my newly found skills to my annotated bibliographies in my
“UNIV '' course and can be better prepared for my upcoming presentation in which judges are
expected for us to be well informed on our research topics. Having these new tools gives me the
confidence that I will have a great outing and will hopefully impress the judge.
As previously mentioned, I feel like the new challenges keep the essays fresh, yet the
familiarity never makes anything feel out of the norm. Learning how to reapply my research
skills in this essay was definitely helpful as I wasn’t new to the concept of research as opposed to
the first essay where I wasn’t as well informed on how to find useful information. I also feel like
I learned better how to cite information and form patterns in my head. Before I was constantly
rechecking the examples provided, but with the repetition of citing I was able to do it without
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switching tabs over and over. I only used the examples as a reference a few times to make sure it
was flowing in an orderly manner as intended. The homework assignments in which we had to
write down the authors, provide short summaries, and direct quotes really helped guide me
throughout the essay as I feel like it served as the skeleton needed for proper flow within my
paper.
The research analysis paper taught me that the research isn’t done and there is still
information I can gain in regards to my topic of sports related concussions. Some studies done in
my research made me realize maybe some of the articles don’t fit the paper as well as others.
They tend to delve into other points of research that don’t necessarily pertain to what I am trying
to research. In the future, I feel like I can better close off what I want and don’t want to find the
absolute specifics of my research on whatever that may be. Knowing what other research is done
by studies that don’t agree can be most helpful, but this is more avoiding studies that are more
off topic and don’t contribute to the end goal. I ended up finding some articles related to a small
group of SRC patients going through therapy to help alleviate the symptoms of SRC, but this
kind of went off my original topic of concussions suffered in the youth and how it can later affect
the athlete down the line.
The most helpful source to help me guide through my essays is my professor. I often get
stuck on grabbing the concept of the overall essay leading me to ask questions about the essay
when it is time to conference. I often don’t finish the draft fully, but my thought process is to ask
questions to help guide me through the completion as I don’t want to write a full draft and be left
in the dark. I feel like I work better this way as I like having a fresh pair of eyes review my
paper. I found myself cutting out a lot of information and shortening things down because it was
brought to my attention that this was an analysis paper and not a research paper. I cut out some of
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my paragraphs to hopefully reuse in the future as I feel like I “accidently” wrote down some
great information which unfortunately isn’t needed right now. This however gives me a headstart
on the next essay.
Without a doubt, peer review I find is one of my favorite aspects when it comes to
writing essays because as students we can often take ideas from one another and become better
writers. When conducting peer review, I present my ideas and absorb their ideas and that
combined with the professor conferences often creates the best paper possible. The more eyes
that can see my paper I feel the better it is. One aspect I found changing was, as previously
stated, cutting out the overload of information. This mostly resided at the beginning of my essay
which made me realize I need to take my essay in an entirely new direction. Without this
oversight, my paper would have been an overload and it wouldn’t properly reflect the prompt
that was given to us.
While this essay has its fair share of challenges, I feel like I improved throughout the
process. The least challenging part to me was being able to envision what I wanted to write down
and get the overall gist of the end product. Of course, this was only solidified after the professor
conference and peer review process were completed. The most challenging aspect of the paper
was as repeatedly mentioned knowing how much information to put into my research analysis
paper. This was an “analysis paper” and not a “research paper” and when I realized that I felt
more comfortable working on it. Through this challenge however, I feel like I can better prepare
for the next paper and whatever research paper I need to do in the future.
