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0Kelyn McGuire

Writing 2 / TR- 8:00-9:50 am

Tym Chajdas

February 21st, 2020

Reflective Essay

It has been a difficult past two weeks for me personally. About a week after my surgery,

it was brought to my attention that writing project 2 was due. Even though we were told way in

advance when it was due and we talked about it in class, I was still nervous about the daunting

task. I learned a variety of things throughout my time researching and analyzing evidence for this

paper. I did not know much about the entire Environmental Studies discourse community or

what its literary practices and conventions were, so I was pleasantly surprised to find the

information that I did.

When reading the prompt for the first time, I honestly had no idea where to start.

Honestly, my biggest fear was the research side of it because I didn’t know how to conduct

reliable research and along with that I didn’t know who to ask for help. During a class session,

we were given the opportunity to go to the UCSB library and be taught by one of the librarians

how to use the online research database. Prior to that visit, we were required to complete an

online module that was sent through the library that would give us tasks to complete that would

introduce the database to us. It was to help us have a brief understanding of how to navigate the

site before going in and learning more advanced features. The following day in the library we

were introduced to the librarian where we were given even more advice and tips on how to use

the database. She taught us how to maneuver the site confidently and ensured that we were

getting the right information without feeling like there was inaccuracy. I believe it was important
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for me to learn how to use the database so I am glad that I had the opportunity to be taught by

librarians who understand the ins and outs of the site.

The discourse community that I chose to observe, and study is one that is extremely

interesting to me. That is why I believe I had no issue with finding information out about it

because I was actually curious to find out more. While researching, I found out a lot of material

that I did not know was a part of the Environmental Studies discourse community. Without

knowing this newfound information beforehand, it made it even more exciting to find it. It was

even more rewarding when I found out that I could use it to support my thesis.

Personally, I found that writing the essay itself to be somewhat difficult. I knew all the

information that I wanted to present and the evidence that I wanted to use to prove my thesis, but

I had difficulty with structuring the essay to make sense. I knew how I wanted the essay to sound

in my head and what point I wanted to come across however, the way it was coming across in

my writing was not exactly how I planned. While planning my paragraphs out, I was struggling

with the overall formatting and what exactly I wanted to say. I did the best I could to make sure

that my paragraphs made sense and the analysis of the evidence that I provided connected back

to my thesis.

I do not know exactly what I want to write about in the next writing project that we have.

I think I would want to continue my research on the environmental side of things, so maybe

something to do with the ocean or pollution. I still have many questions that I need to ask before

I pick a genre and stick with it. The environment is something that interests me a lot, so I would

like to pick something that could possibly pertain to that, I just hope that I can find something

that is creative and unique. The research that I was able to do with the writing project 2, allowed

me to feel more confident with the research that I plan to do in the future.
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