Writing Research Studies: A Look Back



When I started this course I knew that it was going to be challenging. I was prepared for this course to be much harder than the Writing Theories class that I took in the fall. This course was just as challenging as I expected but the challenges were manageable. If I don't remember anything else in this course I will remember how to research with a specific purpose. I read a lot of articles this semester about writing theories and practices the research part of this course led by my own interests and questions. This is where I did the most meaningful work. The work that got me thinking about what is going to happen at the end.

I had no idea what I wanted my thesis to be in January. Truthfully, I still don't know what for sure but the work I've done over the course of this class has lead me in the right direction that will guide me towards my end goal in this course of my learning. I didn't have any expectations for this semester other than the fact that I knew that I would be doing some challenging work. Last semester was an introduction into my graduate studies. This semester the ball really started rolling. It was reassuring to know that I had a pretty good understanding of different philosophies, theorists and their research. I felt really secure in my work and what I was learning. The work load was something that I could understand and use in my profession.

The most challenging weeks for me were when I had a sudden family emergency that took me away from school work for a while and Katherine's week. She presented texts on participatory learning and she had loads of data research in her articles that was a challenge for me to decipher. At that point I wondered if I was missing something? Should I really be here? Do I even belong here. Nothing was making sense to me and everything looked foreign. It took me a long time to read through the work and glean the important parts that I needed to discuss in my blog. This really was a challenge for me. But when I was done I learned so much from this experience. I learned about myself as a scholar. I learned what my limitations are and I was able to push through.

For as much as I have learned I also learned that there is so much more that I need to learn about researching Writing Studies. I thought this field was new but it has been around for quite sometime and the people that are known for doing the work in is this field is on a very short list. And from what it seems like, all of their ideas intersect in some form or another. Our discussions were always so rich and informative it gave me a new perceptive on the articles we read weekly. I would learn what I didn't know or understand from the articles through our discussions.

I want to say I became a better writer in this course. But I doubt it. I think I am still an okay writer. The area that I did experience growth in is my research abilities. I didn't realize how much I research things as a teacher. I am always doing research in some form or another when I am preparing for my lessons. But doing research to write a thesis argument that I am going to present for academic purposes challenged me. It taught me how to research and think about research in a different way. And I learned so much about myself and how I should spend my time doing my research and research doesn't mean you read something in its entirety. You can't there's no time. It was the learning how to look through texts with purpose and intentionality. I welcome all that I have to learn and I am appreciative the knowledge that I've gained from this course.

Dr. Zamora you will be missed and I don't know what I am going to do with out you on the rest of my journey. Thank you for inspiring me to go beyond, push harder and think deeper.


Class Blog: 

Discussion Lead Paper:

Research Proposal:




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