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Taylor Williams

Professor McGriff

ENC 1102

4 March 2021

Reflection

I grew as a researcher and a writer throughout the writing process of this paper. Learning

about hydraulic fracturing in the news and in real life events have influenced me because it gave

me the foundational knowledge needed to understand the background information of my topic. I

have grown as a writer through improving on researching and planning skills, making the content

substantial with developing critical thinking skills, and learning about my topic and how I can

make it into a portfolio.

This paper has helped me learn a lot about not only my research topic, but about how to

be a better writer. The first thing I learned was during the research process. Finding information

about my topic gave me good practice to figure out which sources are reliable and relevant.

Before this paper, I already knew that planning and creating outlines can help you determine how

you want your paper to be. Yet, I learned that really taking your time in this step can help you

organize your thoughts even further. For example, I would create a quick outline of a paper I was

about to write that just included a thesis and the main evidence I wanted to include.

While completing this paper, I became a better writer through each step of the writing

process. I have written ten to twenty-page papers before, but after writing this paper I really

found how to make each point substantial and significant. This paper has helped to further

develop my critical thinking skills through writing commentary. This gave me a chance to
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further explain and add to statements, as well as provide examples that can help the reader

understand what is being said.

I learned valuable skills while writing this paper about how the negative environmental

consequences of hydraulic fracturing outweigh the positive economic effects of hydraulic

fracturing. One of my best entries that I included in my paper was about how hydraulic

fracturing can contaminate water. This is because it is relevant to today and is a big issue. For

example, hazardous materials have leaked into ground water where some people get their

drinking water from.

The portfolio that I have created illustrates determination. This is because I am motivated

to improve my writing and researching skills. It also demonstrates a well thought out analysis on

the effects hydraulic fracturing has on our environment and economy. I plan to use what I

learned, such as how to create a portfolio, to be able to create portfolios for school and in a

possible career later on.