Now that I am basically finished with my research paper, I must say that I have learned a lot. Doing a major research paper such as this one takes much effort and hard work. I have definitely learned that the key is to start early and divvy up the work into manageable chunks. The previous assignment, the annotated bibliography, helped immensely in writing the research paper. I feel like all the work I did for that assignment was instrumental to my research paper. The summaries of all the sources I planned to use made organizing my essay that much easier and manageable.
Additionally, outlining my essay and indicating which quotations and paraphrases I was going to use made writing the essay much more enjoyable. Once all the preliminary work was done, all that was left to do was assemble the pieces and make the essay flow in a logical manner and efficiently, as to best express my argument.
I have learned a great deal about my chosen topic, learning in online forums, through my research. All the studies and articles I’ve gathered about my topic enlightened me to the true potential of online forums. I have long been an online forum user and known about the potential of online forums, yet never knew that there was so many studies and research about it. Now, I know that my original feelings about the power of online forums were accurate.
Through my research, I’ve learned that online forums can be used for a great array of things. Online forums are a great way to find out more about a particular subject from a diverse and varied audience. Online forums allow one to get a varied perspective about a subject, less biased and more accurate than if it were to come from a smaller sample size. It also allows for complex debate to take place with knowledgeable responses and useful information transfer.
Thus, I truly learned a lot from this experience. Next time around, I would like to get additional printed sources for my paper, perhaps in the form of books, as that would give a truly diverse set of data with which to work with. All in all, the research that I’ve done was a very valuable learning lesson to my academic career.
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