Project 1 Reflection

I learned a lot about writing, critical thinking/analyzing, and synthesizing by completing Project 1. For starters, I have learned so much about nuclear power and scientific risks from the readings, viewings, and listenings we have completed so far this semester. This topic is very new to me, so it has been interesting to read, watch, and listen to the information provided. In completing this project, I became better at reading and interpreting dense and difficult texts, which I needed to do in order to come up with an argument that answers the question, “How do scholars in the humanities contribute uniquely to STEM-based conversations about risk?”. I learned to pay more attention to the readings to fully grasp the meaning behind them. I did this by taking my time while reading so I could take notes and highlight important information. Another thing that I learned was how to connect/synthesize texts with each other to contribute to an overall conversation. I did this by comparing my notes on each of the readings and sources I chose for the project, to find similarities and connections. This was the most difficult part of the project because it took a lot of hard thinking and evaluating to connect all the sources to my thesis. I also feel like I became better at writing in general because I was forced to write about a more sophisticated topic that I had never learned about in the past. This took a lot of time to craft my writing to make sure it fit my rhetorical goals. This new knowledge is significant as it contributes to my learning in this course and beyond because it is important to be able to gather and or take in information and then analyze it. A piece of writing or any other document is meaningless unless interpreted. This is why I can use these skills for the rest of the projects this semester in EN12, as well as in future classes and in the business world. Next, I need to know how to synthesize texts without having a question to refer back to. I feel like this would help me build upon my synthesis skill because it forces me to find connections without the help of a question guiding my findings. Next, I will continue to work on my reading skills of dense works, as well as formulating connections and analyses between sources. This will further my literacy and writing skills for the future, which will hopefully set me apart from others in business who did not receive a liberal arts education.