A Reflection on Unit One

Now that I have finished my QRG, I am going to reflect on my work and experience throughout the entire process. Over the past few weeks, I have learned so much about my field of study, new tools

and writing strategies, how to write a QRG, and how to go dive deeper into my subject rather than just gliding across the surface. Every week, we had to post four to five blog posts, but little did I realize, all of this information and short clips of researching I was doing was leading up to my overall paper. Through this process of blogging, I learned about many new tools that will help me with my future writing.
First, I learned how to correctly use a picture on google images, rather than just copying and pasting any random picture. There are certain pictures that you can and cannot lose. Second, I learned about Google Scholar. Google Scholar allowed me to find strong, credible articles and journals about my subject. Every source was filled was great information and had links to other very useful sources as well. Third, I learned how to make a cluster diagram, which allowed me to put all of my thoughts on paper. By creating a cluster diagram, I was able to organize all of my information easily, which helped me to begin writing my rough draft. Fourth, I learned how to use the PIE format in my writing effectively which showed me what needed to be added or deleted from every paragraph in my overall paper. Last, I simply learned how to write a QRG!
There were many skills I improved on during this entire process. In high school, we were required to have a blog post as well, however, we were only posting about one or two times a week. This project has improved my writing as a blogger and I now know what to write in my posts, how much I should write, and effect ways to get my point across. I also learned how to cite in MLA format correctly, I had been citing incorrectly for a while but one of our assignments was to look at our peer’s blogs and compare our citations to theirs, then leave a post with suggestions of how to correct them. This helped me see what I was doing wrong in my citations.
 Although I am undeclared major, researching information about psychology gave me a better idea about the major and what goes along with it. I learned that a large majority of psychology is based on other people’s research and various experiments. Therefore, communication is usually between professors or those conducting experiments. There are thousands of experiments that have been published in order for others to observe and build upon. All of this research can be found on websites, in scholarly journals, and in many books.

I learned a lot about my own writing process as well. First, I learned that I am a very organized writer and that using a cluster diagram helps me significantly. It allows me to put all of my ideas and information I wish to include on one piece of paper. I also learned that I have a tendency to just summarize information rather than actually analyzing it and taking it a step further. For this specific assignment, I found a lot of very strong and resourceful information. This is because I spent hours researching my topic on the computer and finding the most valuable, important, and relevant information. To further improve my writing process for the next time, I can work on analyzing the rhetorical situation more. I need to do this because otherwise I’m just telling the readers information and skimming the surface. Last, if I could summarize the most important thing I learned it would be: writing is a process; it is not something you are just going to whip out in one night. It takes time, patience, and work. 

Picture Link