Jordan Melton

English 1010

December 5, 2020

Unit 3 Reflection

When writing, reading, and analyzing, using these threshold concepts can strengthen your

skills. I would definitely say I utilized and prioritized literate practices and processes. The

journal and viewpoint synthesis required researching, reading, interpreting, conversing, thinking,

revising, and just overall depth. Thanks to that, I will definitely keep the researching aspect with

me.

Part Two

When I had to choose a subject to research, I felt that social media was going to be the

perfect subject. I had heard multiple times how social media affects mental health and how

harmful it was, so I assumed there was a ton of research to back it up. I looked up articles before

setting on a research question, and I quickly read over the articles and thought the information

looked plentiful. When I actually started the assignment, I realized the statistics and information

were more of studies of only hundreds of people instead of proven research about thousands. I

had to become picky and find information that could apply useful information to prove a point. If

I could go back, I definitely would have chosen a different subject that had more research to go

along with it.

I didn’t get the opportunity to work with librarians due to some life situations, but I did

get opportunities to work with other students and peer review each other's projects. I find it

beneficial when you can get feedback from multiple students who are going and looking at your
work for mistakes instead of going and reading to see what you wrote about. Having peer

reviews as an assignment gives the perfect opportunity to hear the honest truth about your essay

from multiple people. Not only is it beneficial to have people reviewing your writing, but also by

reviewing others' writing, you can get a better clue of what to do or what not to do.

I am happy with what information I put in my research project, but I was unhappy with

what little information was on my subject. I really thought there was going to be a more plentiful

amount of information but was disappointed as I figured out that wasn’t the case. I definitely had

a challenge of what information I could put in and making sure it was reliable. I found some

articles that were merely opinions but couldn’t really use anything they said as a way to persuade

anyone, but could use a quote or two. I then began to focus on finding articles that had proven

information that could back up what they were saying. One thing I noticed with this subject is

that more articles were merely opinions than not which were not useful for this certain project.

There is no such thing as too much practice when it comes to working with multiple

sources and citing them. I really enjoyed practicing that skill but also focusing on the quality of

sources rather than just the quantity. I didn’t really practice APA format as much as MLA

format. I definitely wish I would’ve done more APA as it would’ve been useful to push myself

out of my comfort zone.

If I could have redone the process again, I would have not only chosen a different subject,

but I would have researched the topic more beforehand if I had stuck with it. Another thing I

would have done is practice APA format rather than sticking with MLA because I was

comfortable with it. I feel that with this class, the structure was perfect as we learned certain

strategies to apply to each assignment that was coming up. If I had to choose a threshold concept
that didn’t make as much sense to me, it would definitely be action. I felt like I didn’t use it a lot,

or at least I didn’t understand how I was.

The project showed me to be careful of what information I use and how I should be

checking the credibility. In my daily life, I hear of things happening or certain things in the news,

but I often find myself either believing it off the bat or not looking into it. I feel a lot of people

are that way and should really look into the credibility of the sources they are hering the

information from.

When I chose this subject, I was really hoping to find new information that I could apply

to my daily life. Social media has played a huge role in my life and I have heard multiple

statements about how bad it is, which is why I chose it. I was hoping it was going to prove me

wrong and provide insight that could persuade me and other people that social media isn’t

scientifically as bad as people said. Due to this being considered a newer issue with not a lot of

studies donet to prove it, there wasn’t a lot of credible evidence to point the argument either way.

If I were to take some things that I learned from writing these it would be credibility,

researching, analyzing, organizing and citing. I felt I practiced skills that are necessary and

useful.

Part Three

I chose to do independent feedback as my SDL. The reason for me choosing this was I

realized that almost all the time, I submit my writing and wait for others to proofread my writing

and often don’t proof-read my own writing. I made an extra effort to make sure that I was putting

out good information and had good structure and overall just wrote the best paper I could before

sending it off to another person. This is something I should have been practicing and I feel like it

put me in a good habit.