Module 6 – Research Papers

Upon the completion of the lesson in module 6. It is clear that there is a lot to writing that I need to start applying to my daily assignments in all of my classes. More specifically, I’ve been approaching research papers totally wrong.

Most importantly I always approached a research paper by simply presenting the most valid information on a certain topic of interest. I never took my own angle on the topic and built an argument based off of that opinion. What really caught my attention is what Prensky said on slide 10: “Research requires a critical look at the quality of the information you are finding rather than simply finding information that fits a particular topic”. This quote really captivated me for a few reasons. First off, this quote perfectly depicts what “research” is. It broadly encompasses the most important part of research.

All in all, the most important thing that I learned from this lesson is that a research paper will never be credible or up to par if the sources you go the information from isn’t. That may seem obvious, but too often I find myself using the information from the first link that I find. To future college students, I would recommend creating some sort of algorithm to follow for every website you want to extract information from. For instance, ask yourself when the website was created? Who’s the author? Is the info biased? And so on.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *