Reflection on the Field Project - Due in 8-10 Hours Please

This class turned out to be much more interesting and engaging than I thought it would be.  I had no idea about the scope and variety of research styles available to writers.  So far, research for me has been very limited to my local and university library or from topics looked up on line.  The research world is far deeper and wider than I imagined.  I am very thankful for the Working in the Archives book.  I had no idea how much depth can be found in researching someone's personal notes, photographs or even location history to gain perspectives on a particular subject. I just didn't think about those areas necessarily being sources of research.  I have a completely different view of that now.

As far as applying what I've learned to my own writing, I definitely see the need to spend more time reading through more research sources for any given writing I may do in the future.  One of my interests is to write about the history of the U.S. Navy's PT Boats used in World War II.  I know that a handful of books have been written about them and that one or two History Channel documentaries exist.  With an expanded perspective of research options now in hand, I know that when I do write that piece, I'll need to make sure I set aside plenty of time for really digging into more than the obvious or more readily available sources of information.

I would say that I spent probably about the same amount of time between writing and editing on our final paper as I have with others in the past. I did find that I just didn't have enough space to use all of the sources in my final product that I had originally submitted. That limit of 8-11 pages forced me to weigh some of the research pieces I had already gathered to see if they were really valuable to my overall topic or would just become more examples of a point already made.  In my revision, I found that I needed to move one particular section around to have it make more sense in the overall paper along with a few sentence, spelling, and source citing adjustments.

I truly enjoyed writing our final paper because it's a subject I am very passionate about and I found that passion shared by a few other people whom I either interviewed or read. I wasn't alone in my topic and that helped to motivate my writing.  I did find it a bit difficult to relate to the readings in the technical communications textbook, but again, it did provide some insights into overall writing ideas and approaches.  I learned, too, that some people truly love to write about writing!  Seeing the depth at which so many of the writers in our books go just to research and discuss the act and art of writing really surprised me.  I don't share that desire, but can totally understand why they do it.

I hope that I remember what I've found in this class to help me be better prepared for real world writing assignments in the future.