For the final reflection, we are supposed to look back and discuss the issues that we faced while working on the project and then talk about how we overcame the different issues and how they helped us to become a better writer. While writing my final reflection, I realized that the writing did not in any way really help me to become a better writer other than to show me the difficulties of having to do a paper using a lot of primary sources. My final reflection instead, focuses more so on the different issues that I faced and how I overcame them.
Project 1 I had to work very hard to keep my paper from turning into an essay. The additions of personal reflections helped to stop my paper from being an essay. The main problem that I have with writing, in general, would be my lack of grammar. While this is not an issue that most people tend to fix during the editing process, it is something that I often struggle. The only thing that can be done in situations like this is just to have other people edit the paper until the grammar errors are gone. Another thing that I struggled with was time management. This is an issue that I struggled with on all three projects. While I was doing my best to try and stay on pace, I kept falling behind. After a while, it started to feel like all I was ever doing was working on of the different projects.
For project two the main issue arose when I was having to do research on my community. This created an issue because there are not many if any, peer-reviewed sources that talk about anything even related to being an exploratory major. Due to this issue, I was often left to try and find as much research as I could by myself. By finding the information myself I was then able to say that all the information came from a primary source meaning that the information was still reliable. While this is an appropriate way to go about dealing with a lack of reliable sources, this causes another issue when considering how long it can sometimes take to gain all the primary information. With this problem is where I ran into the most issues. This caused me the most issues because once again I was going to be late to turn in an assignment. While I was talking to all the people that I was needing to talk to, the process of setting up appointments to get together to talk to someone about the major I was investigating was a hassle. While I was then able to overcome the issue before turning the assignment in, I went to the RWC. I went to the RWC to talk to someone and have them help me with my grammar. While I was there the girl that I was working with pointed out something that was very important to my paper. She pointed out that my paper and prompt were different. Meaning that I did not write about the intended prompt. After an hour of working on the paper, and many edits I was finally able to turn in my project two.
For project three there were nowhere near as many issues that were faced. For my three genres I chose a Thank you card addressed to the people who I shadowed in the actuarial department, a pamphlet that talked about being exploratory, and for my third genre, I wrote an email to my adviser about the need for an exploratory club. The only issue that was faced while working on this project was the fact the Microsoft has the most confusing layout to make a pamphlet. Eventually, I was forced to accept defeat and google other templets to make a pamphlet. By the time I found a site I was once again late on the project. But I think that it is ok that I was slightly late because having seen the first attempt of the pamphlet opposed to the one that I turned in, the quality difference from the first to the last is extraordinary.
In the end, I would say my biggest struggle across all three projects was turning in the projects on time. While I was late on all the projects I was constantly working on the projects and trying to improve the projects to a point that I felt comfortable turning them in. While I know that the effort that I put in is clearly shown in project three with the pamphlets that I turned in that I had to cut and fold myself. I am sure that the other two projects can show how much work was put into each one through their content. I worked very hard to gather all the information and present it in an effective manner. While I think I was able to accomplish this goal, I hope that others when reading through my projects can see at least some of the effort that I put in.