Week 1: I decided on the feminist movement/feminism as the topic for my research paper.
Week 2: I really didn’t think too much about my paper, I was really focused on my Oral History Project.
Week 3: My professor suggested I think about writing my research paper in the narrative/journalism style of writing since that seems to be easier for me. So I might do that for my paper instead of a typical essay format.
Week 4: I decided my specific topic would be sexual violence against women. Still not sure if I am doing interviews for a literary journalism piece because it would be very difficult.
Week 5: I went to office hours and my professor and I talked about it and decided against the literary journalism format for this topic. Instead we talked about doing a film or a painting. We narrowed down my topic to sexual violence against young women that way I have a more specific area to discuss. There is a film I am thinking about using called The Hunting Ground and it is about sexual violence on a college campus.
Week 6: I decided on The Hunting Ground as my artifact for my research paper. And began an introduction for my paper as well as a draft of my annotated bibliography with 4 sources.
Week 7: I completed my annotated bibliography with 8 sources in total. I also began working on my prospectus and brainstorming investigative questions that I want to write about in my paper.
Week 8: I began working on my prospectus. I decided I wanted to make a power point for it. I had my meeting with my professor about my prospectus. During that meeting we discussed my investigative questions and made revisions to them as well. My professor also suggested a couple other questions I should add. I had my prospectus mostly completed by the end of this week, it was only missing a few finishing touches. Additionally, I started to work on the research paper itself. After class on Wednesday I figured out I needed to focus on the argument part of my paper first. So by Friday night I submitted a working draft of four pages that resembled an outline for most parts. I got the key points down in my topic sentences and began my analysis. I put an introduction and tentative thesis into my paper at this point as well.
Week 9: I did some more work on my draft to start out the week. On Wednesday I received peer editing on my topic sentences and my thesis. I figured out that I needed to make my claims and my thesis into more of my argument rather than just a summary of facts. The next day I had my conference with my professor about my essay. She gave me lots of useful comments that will help with my editing process. I changed my thesis and made sure to include how my documentary is a form of political activism.
Week 10: Completed my entire paper after many hours of work and I am proud of how it turned out 🙂
The Past forms the Future 