Analyze the effectiveness of your working thesis statement.
1) Learning to conduct research is important because it is a skill you will use both in academia and in your professional life. It improves critical thinking and empowers you to find information for yourself. Consider the process of researching as a whole. What was the most challenging aspect of the process for you? (2-3 sentences)
The most challenging part of this research process was collecting different thoughts into one thesis that can be supported. Once I found all the points I wanted to talk about and was able to break it up into paragraphs finding the sources that worked best with what I wanted to say was difficult. As there were many different options available, it was hard to see what talked about my point and what was most relevant.
2) The working thesis statement is a proposed answer to your research question. It should clearly identify a debatable topic and take a position on one side of that topic. Analyze the effectiveness of your working thesis statement.
My original research question was regarding teenage pregnancy. I had worked with a couple of different pieces; however, I simply just answer what helped reduce the statistics for teenage pregnancy. After doing a bit of research, I found the answer that IUDs and the help of better education and awareness. Working that into a thesis not only answered the initial research question but kept it brought enough where I was able to elaborate in whole paragraphs and counteract and include different viewpoints on each of the topics within my thesis.
3) A detailed outline is an effective tool for laying out the progression of an argument. It allows you to consider the arrangement and organization of your ideas, as well as choose places to incorporate outside source materials. Review your detailed outline and summarize the argument you’ve presented.
After reading my outline, I can see that I have a good structure to write a complete essay. The outline provided me each small topic that I can elaborate on and gave me the ability to view everything as a whole where I could play around with what subject in paragraph and where I wanted it placed. I could have made my sources more detailed such as in the example. The outline also will help me work on my transitions between one paragraph or topic to another as it allows me to see everything as a whole more than just parts.
4) You will use the same topic on three of the remaining Touchstones in this course. What kind of feedback would be helpful for you? What are specific questions you might have as you go deeper into the research process?
Feedback on how well everything ties together within my outline would be beneficial. I feel as if I may need to tweak how I word my thesis to make it a better thesis that still holds my topic true. In high school, I used a PEEL method, and I plan on possibly using that within my outline going forward within this of course. Feedback on how much I had in each paragraph topic would also be helpful as sometimes I feel like I’m putting too much into one point.
