Self critique

This was one of the hardest classes I have ever taken. I learned a lot about research and what I need to do and not do. I’ve never had a class that has been self-paced like this one was. Having to schedule my own time did take some getting used to. I did like the concept of getting input from others and being able to get their input during the writing process.

An outside opinion helped me because I tend to get an idea stuck in my head and even if it’s not the greatest idea I tend to stick with it because I can’t see the problems with it. So I think this is something I’ll definitely use in the future. Another skill I acquired is picking a topic and researching it from scratch. Before this I’ve always had teachers assign topics and give at least some background information on it. This is something I hadn’t given much thought to and didn’t realize how much more is out there when you know what else it might be found under or where else it might be found.

I had never used the Library of Congress before and at first found the whole thing quite intimidating. The whole procedure of looking for sources and then requesting them seemed almost impossible, but now that I’ve been there and done that, I can definitely see using it again with no problems. The physical library wasn’t very helpful for me for this paper but the website was amazing in helping me find pictures to analyze.
I most definitely learned a new skill by doing a research paper on analyzing photos. I honestly didn’t think when I started it was going to be as hard as it turned out to be. I really enjoyed it and will probably try to find a history 499 class that relates to this. I also see with the critiques on my writing what I need to improve on. Mostly I need to be better organized in my papers and fully describe the point I’m trying to make.