Robert Yardley

Individual Inquiry & Research: Writers Reflection

The second writing on my portfolio, Careful Cow Consumption, was tough to

complete. The research took the majority of the time and before I went in to see my professor I
did the research as if I was just writing a single sided argumentative paper. After I had visited my
professor to go over my annotated bibliography, I looked at the research as more of joining a
conversation and studying to know what all different arguments are not just the case that I
choose. After finding all of my various sources, the writing was easier than finding the expected.
One part of the research essay that was different from essays I have written in the past, including
my literacy autobiography, was that despite the astonishing facts statistics and facts on my
subject it was hard to keep thigs interesting. I felt as if I was often repeating myself even when I
was not just because each paragraph was so similar to the amount of text and number of statistics
and research were in it. I reached out to my peers for advice about this problem, and they gave
me good advice about using stories not just statistics to convey my message and keep it
interesting.