Course Reflection Page

Adam Tran

ENC 1102

Professor Longhany

Beginning the semester in ENC 1102, I was well aware that a large majority of the course would be spent on a research paper. Naturally, I was not extremely thrilled or excited for the assignment, however, I had a change of heart as the course progressed. The research paper was not how I had expected; resulting in not only a bearable assignment but an enjoyable and informative one was well.

            Finishing up the ENC 1101 course and entering 1102, I had general knowledge about rhetoric and discourse community but never truly explored it. This assignment called us to enter and research a discourse community of our choosing. Hearing other classmates and the topics that they were considering, I originally chose to explore hospital-acquired infections, also known as nosocomial infections, and its effects on patients. After discussing the topic with the professor and fellow classmates, I soon realized that this might not be the best topic for the assignment. Although it was interesting and educational, hospital-acquired infections would be a difficult topic to study. I learned that this research paper was not only about researching and summarizing the information, like most research papers, but also involved more detail and analyzing factors. Although research was a very important aspect of the paper, this course entailed us to take our research even further. It asked us to not only reach out for information, but to use that information to form our own ideas and opinions as well. It urged us to attempt to extend the research and contribute to the research question and the respective discourse community. Keeping that in mind, I chose to look into dental fear and more specifically, the internal and external factors that contribute to this fear.

While writing my paper, I learned to recognize presuppositions that may occur and how to avoid some of them myself. In order to do so, I did my best to make sure my information was clear and concise. It called me to step into the audience’s shoes and realize that not everyone has the same general understanding of dental visits and that it’s my job to make clarifications in this area. For example, I understood that not everyone may be familiar with dental visits or that dental fear could even occur. Therefore, I briefly described dental visits and explained how dental fear could potentially come about due to various factors, such as the noise of a dental tool. Moreover, this assignment taught me to look through other people’s perspective, to not only be focused on my thoughts but to consider opposing viewpoints as well. For example, many people made it seem as if the dentist were the “bad guy.” They explained how many things the dentist does, such as creating loud and intimidating noises or lecturing the patient about their lack of flossing, had resulted in their dental fear. Therefore, I took it upon myself to interview the dentist and gain his opinions as well. The direct audience of my research would be my professor and classmates to whom I will be presenting this information. The nature of this rhetorical situation and my results could also hopefully contribute to the dental discourse community.  Prior to this assignment, I didn’t believe that two people could write a research paper on a similar topic because they would both be discussing the same exact things. This course taught me that two people, indeed, could successfully have the same research topic. Although they may have similar research findings and background information, they could have entirely different papers. They could locate different gaps and contribute entirely different research to the discourse community.

Prior to this course, I was not too experienced with primary research. Most of my research was done online, through books, or other forms of reading. This class asked me to dig deeper and to take it farther. It asked me to visit and truly become familiar with the discourse community. It asked me to raise questions and form opinions based on my observations and findings. Primary research proved to be more beneficial than I had ever thought. It’s eye opening to actually visit a location related to the topic of study and raise questions. I found that there are so many things that can be discovered outside of reading. The Internet and other sources contain large amount of information, but it does not have every little bit. Primary research allowed the assignment to become more personal and increased my interest in the topic. I would have to say that I was most interested in my studies when I was physically interviewing my subjects and the dentist. I was able to record data on emotion, body language, and simply get a true feel of how my subjects answered the questions, all of which would be absent if I were basing all of my research on readings. Don’t get me wrong, all types of research were important to my paper and each style of research was beneficial. However, more so than others, the primary research that was conducted for this paper shed a new light on how research could be done and how to ensure that the topic is explored to its entirety.

This course taught me to organize my information in a new manner. It taught me an entirely new approach to writing and showed me a new journey throughout the writing process. This class urged me to stray away from my traditional methods of writing: brainstorming, writing, and revising. The annotated bibliography, for example, taught me how to organize my information according to ideas instead of sources. For example, instead of grouping my information according to sources, I grouped my information on whether dental fear related to dental cognition, dental disturbances, or dental relationships. Also, the annotated bibliography taught me to correctly display concision. As seen in the rough draft of my annotated bibliography, I had difficulty summarizing information and deeming what was important. In the final draft of my annotated bibliography, I believe that I improved tremendously on my concision and included relevant and imperative material. Throughout the semester, I have also recognized various grammar, spelling, and formatting issues that I needed to improve on. For example, I had been writing parenthetical citations incorrectly. As seen in my annotated bibliography, I originally wrote a citation as follows: “The activation of the cognitive vulnerability schema, as a mediating variable, is a mechanism by means of which children's self-perceptions of a poor oral health might lead to dental anxiety (Carrillo-Diaz).” By visiting the professor in office hours, I was able to correct this formatting mistake and include the parenthetical after the quote instead of before. This course also taught me to save ALL of my data. I now realize the importance of keeping all documents and information that I gather. I also learned to make sure to save all URLs, as I may wish to return to them later (I learned this the hard way and had to go back and find some of these sources).

ENC 1102 has definitely changed the way I write for the better. It allowed me to not only research and transfer information to paper, but to also take advantage of other resources around me. Peer reviews, office hours, and class discussions all taught me the value of other people’s opinions. By participating in these other resources, I was able to gain perspective from others and was informed on errors and additions that otherwise may have been overlooked. It allowed me to realize that other people are a tremendous resource and how beneficial they can really be. For example, my literature review had a few grammar mistakes. After proofreading my paper multiple times, I had not seen any errors. After being proofread by four different people, my grammatical errors surfaced. It just goes to show that seeking help from others was advantageous, more so than I would have ever thought. The way this class was spaced out and organized also taught me that reading and revising my paper multiple times was worthwhile. It taught me to go back and continually ask myself how I could make my paper better. I still have much to learn and there’s definitely room for improvement in both my reading and writing, but this class has helped me progress and take some steps in the right direction. This course showed me that we wouldn’t make much progress without inquiry-based research. Researching a discourse community and analyzing that data to form new opinions and conclusions are what make these communities grow. ENC 1102 successfully showed me the importance of raising questions, contributing to research and how the discourse community grows and learns new things as a result.