Reflection of Research Paper

     To choose a topic for this assignment, I started by just writing down arguments that are meaningful to me. So things I had an opinion of that was entirely my own, it was not created by reading about the argument but instead it was all original. Then I went through that list and started by taking off all the topics I felt that I already knew to much about, this was to just allow myself to learn and use sources more effectively instead of trying to find sources that backed exactly what I want. After all this I chose my topic.
     Then I started brainstorming possible reasons why my side of the argument was correct, I came up with a list of about 7 reasons why I felt I was correct. I had to narrow that list down to about 3 major topics, and then for each topic I needed a counter argument and my own argument to invalidate the counter argument. This became my general outline for what I wanted to include in m paper.
     The next thing was finding sources, Sources to back what i wanted to say and sources to attempt to invalidate the counter argument, both scholarly and not. I found 4 academic journals, a blog from an organization that is directly related to the argument in question, and I also used personal experience as a source but I cited it like an interview.
     It was challenging for me to be opinionated in this writing, because I prefer to list and talk about the facts whether I agree with them or not. But I did overcome this in the writing because I not only needed to but i enjoyed writing about the argument itself.
     I learned a lot about the laws surrounding my argument and how they are not only pointless, but that research shows they have actually increased the "problem" in most cases. It was very interesting to learn about how people view the same topic, and how something seems so obvious to me can be so foreign to someone else.
     The first assignment and this assignment were very different for me, I went into the first assignment already knowing how I wanted it to turn out. I knew how it would sound and what sources would be used. This assignment I went into less sure of myself. Also the assignments themselves were very different for me as an Engineering Major, the first assignment was strictly factual and there was little to no of my own opinion involved. This one however was much more opinionated and wanted me to back up my opinions as well as dispute counter arguments that arise because of my opinions and reasoning.