Project 2 Reflection

I learned a lot about annotated bibliographies, rhetorical context, and synthesis from completing Project 2. In high school, teachers had me include annotations on bibliographies before, but it was usually just one sentence summarizing the source and stating how I used it. In this project, I learned how annotated bibliographies are important in understanding sources, and connecting them to an overall theme or conversation. I believe I became better at analyzing a source for its rhetorical context. I also learned what it means to synthesize sources and connect each of them to each other, as well as an overarching conversation. I learned these things through the workshops we did in class, as well as past lessons such as the one where we learned about rhetorical context. This knowledge is significant as it contributes to my learning in this course as well as beyond because I now know how to sift through sources to find the most important and relevant ones for the conversation I am attempting to participate in. Having strong sources is very important in not only this class but other classes, and in my future career because having credible information written by trusted people/professionals is so important. Next, I need to continue to work on and better my research skills in order to find the best sources to support my claims and to contribute to the conversation I am writing about. The research aspect of this project, along with synthesizing, was the toughest component. I want to improve my researching skills because I know it is going to be a skill that I need for the rest of my college semesters and beyond. I can take steps to improve my researching skills by making appointments with the librarians, as well as set aside a lot of time to search through a lot of different sources and pick the most relevant ones.