D#3, HW#1 - Reflection

After rereading the reading assignments, specifically Chapter 4 in the Wadsworth Handbook regarding how to set up and edit rough drafts, I felt extremely unprepared to continue with Deadline #3. The first question that came to mind was “How am I supposed to write a rough draft when I haven’t even figured out what my research question is?” This led me to rereading Chapter 2 to get a better understanding of what I should have accomplished by now.

One of the key factors in Chapter 2 is “Choosing and Narrowing a Topic.” I have chosen the topic “Voting” and narrowed the topic to Voting, the American Right. However, I somehow missed another key factor “Reading and Observing” listed under “Finding Something to Say.” Although I was able to locate a few web sites regarding my topic, I didn’t really “read” them. I noticed the heading on the articles matched my topic, read a few lines and saved the web pages to read thoroughly later. This was a minor mistake for me. I realized suddenly I was trying to complete my assignments without actually doing them. “How do I intend to gain the knowledge I seek, if I do not complete my studies entirely and accurately?” It was also during this free-writing session that I have altered my topic to Voting and Education.

I finally decided if I am to understand what it is to effectively write for specific rhetorical contexts; organize writing to support a central idea; use the appropriate conventions in writing; find, evaluate, select and produce multiple perspectives using online and print sources; and put together sources by means of summarizing, paraphrasing, and quotation that I needed to start over.

I determined this needed to be done by freewriting and came up with the following:

See Google shared document: Freewriting 01 – Voting

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgh8hrzj_4pd42vp

Completing this freewriting I have finally ascertained a possible research question “Should learning about voting be a required course in school at all levels of education?” I will need to do further research to verify if this is something currently taught at school as a course or just a brief summary during another course and at which levels of education does it happen to justify using this as a research question.

I’ve determined that the purpose of my writing about voting will be informative with a possible call to action. Meaning, educating about voting is important and it is being recommended that this become a required course for all levels of education to ensure the knowledge is readily accessible.

I have also discovered that the original audience of just parents and school boards was too limited to the scope of persons affected by this topic. The intended audience now consists of parents, teachers, school boards and government officials. Though possibly an unintended audience, this also directly affects youths and should be considered.