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Andrew Llovet

Steffen Guenzel

ENC 1102 M31

22 April 2019

Self-Assessment

In ENC 1102 we are taught how to correctly conduct research and put together a research

project at the end of the semester. At the end of the semester we will be presenting to our professor

and fellow peers our TED talk. Our TED talk will consist of all the research we did over the

semester. It will also include our findings that we did while conducting our research. My research

project revolved around how accountants communicate.

Overall, I believe that my writing skills have gotten better as a result of the class. Before I

was not asked much by my teachers to do research. I was never asked by my teachers to conduct

research and describe my findings. This class gave me the opportunity to research a topic that I

was interested in, instead of a topic that was assigned to me by the professor. Doing research

allowed me to complete three of my learning outcomes. Those learning outcomes were that I am

now able to read complex texts and understand them, I can conduct research that is specific for a

community, and I can examine texts findings to create my own arguments. The only outcome I felt

that I haven’t learned is that of being able to examine my own writing and have a response for it.

Below I will describe how I achieved these outcomes.

The first outcome I felt that I accomplished in the course was being able to read a text that

was filled with research and be able to comprehend it. I first started to learn this ability when I was
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asked to create a digital paper trail (DPT). A DPT is a list created by us in order to conduct research

on our topic. It was a list complied of at least 30 sources that might useful to our research. We had

to read the text and have a general idea of this text. By having a general idea of the text, it allowed

you to consider whether you would use it for your research map. This was one of the first

milestones we had for our research project. Below you will see a screenshot of my personal DPT

listed 1-19.

The second learning I outcome I learned in ENC 1102 was learning how to do research

for a specific community. I felt that I did a great job with this. The reason I believe I did a great

job with this is because of some of the research I did. In my research I was able to capture the

perspective of both employers and students. The reason why this is important is because instead

of just capturing one perspective of the accounting community I was able to capture what

employers expect and what students or people seeking jobs might expect as well. I learned that is
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very important to capture all perspectives of a community instead of just one perspective. This is

important because all those in the community play a role there. An important outcome that I

learned before this was being able to examine text and understand them. I don’t think that if I

had learned this outcome of being able to understand text, I wouldn’t have learned how to do the

research that I did on the accounting community.

I felt that I struggled with learning how interpret my results from my findings. I also

struggled to produce findings that would help my argument. When I first did my research, I was

not looking for much in specific. At first, when researching I was never looking for anything in

specific, and I thought this was okay. When I met with my professor for peer review, he

explained to me what I should do. He explained to me how I should include actual evidence in

my research paper. This actual evidence included screenshots from the three websites and a table

that had a specific information.

Another outcome that I learned that wasn’t listed was that of how to correctly conduct an

interview. Before doing the interview, I had no idea what questions I should ask. By doing some

research into my three perspectives I was able to formulate questions about what I should ask. I

asked questions related to my research project. I asked whether they had any social media

platforms and what they had on their websites regarding contact information. It was also a good

experience for me to open my networks up since I am interested in getting in a job in the field of

accounting.

The outcome that I have not learned is being to peer review. The reason I do not I have

completely learned this is because when I do peer review sometimes, I do not know what to look

for. I am also not well versed in the different forms of writing a research such as APA. I do not

personally know all the rules when it comes to APA formatting. So, this led me to struggle when
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peer reviewing papers that were writing in APA style. I do want to learn how to peer review so I

can help my classmates write effectively.

I see myself continuing to research aspects of accounting since I am looking to earn my

accounting degree. I am sure that later down the road professors in the college of business will

ask me to do research projects for grades. These research projects will most likely come from

classes taken within the college of business. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to do research

in ENC 1102 on a topic that I was dedicated to.