Reflective Essay

Task:      Explain how the process of completing your research project has affected your understanding of an issue or event in society.

Length:  At least 1200 words

Sources: No minimum number of sources. Cite any sources you use in APA format.

Due date and grading: This assignment is due by the end of Week 8. It is worth 10% of your course grade and will be graded with a rubric. To view the rubric, access the assignment from the Assignments area of the classroom.

Outcomes you should achieve by completing this assignment

Organize information clearly in an explanatory essay (Course outcomes 1 and 2)
Use an introduction paragraph with a thesis statement and a concluding paragraph to frame an essay (Course outcomes 1 and 2)
Demonstrate accurate grammar and mechanics in writing (Course outcome 3)
Topic

You began your research project by reading an article from the news about a current issue or event in society. Your goal in this essay is to explain to your professor how the research and writing you have done for your research project changed your understanding of that issue or event. You will explain what changes occurred in your understanding and how those changes occurred.

Here are some questions you can consider in developing ideas for your essay:

What changes occurred in your understanding?
Do you know more about the issue/event now than you did before? (Probably!)
Do you look at the issue/event from a different perspective following your research?
Have you reconsidered opinions or assumptions that you held at the beginning of the semester?
How did those changes occur?
Which sources from your research had the greatest effect on your understanding?
Did the process of writing about your topic affect the way you thought about it?
What role did interaction with your classmates and/or professor play in your understanding of your topic?
Organizing and supporting your essay

Your essay must include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

The introduction should gain your readers attention, orient the reader to your topic, and state your thesis.

The body of the essay should include focused body paragraphs in support of your thesis statement. There are various ways you might choose to organize information in the body of your essay. Here are some suggestions you can consider:

You might focus each body paragraph on a step of the research process and how that step affected your understanding of the issue/event.
You might focus each body paragraph on your understanding at a particular time relative to the research process (before, during, after).
You might focus each body paragraph on a particular aspect of the issue/event and explain how your understanding of that aspect developed during your research.
The essays conclusion should answer the question So what? by placing the essays explanations into a larger context. To accomplish this, you can consider addressing one or more of these questions:

Will your current understanding of your event/issue affect your future actions or decisions? If so, how?
What lessonsabout interpreting current events, about your field of study, about the research processcan be drawn from the experience of completing the research project?
Is research of the sort done in WRTG 112 a worthwhile activity? Why or why not?