Inquiry-Based Essay Reflection Essay

Before walking in this course, I had it stuck in my head that intervening in a research paper was bad. I learned that it was ok to insert myself into the essay. I could intervene and put a couple of my own perspectives into the essay. In high school, it was prohibited to use your own perspectives and words into the essay. The only major thing I had to consider is having the content and my perspective balanced so that my paper could sound credible. Of course, there were advantages and disadvantages to writing inquiry-based research essays. I noticed several advantages when I was working on my inquiry-based research essay. First, I was given the opportunity to pick a topic. Though this made me think a lot, gathering hand-selected topics and choosing one to write about was beneficial. It made me rethink about what interested me and what bored me. For instance, in essay 3, I originally started with a topic about black holes in space. Initially, it seemed like an interesting thing to talk about. However, as I kept researching this paper, there were large amounts of physics formulas and concepts being mentioned and repeated. It kept scaring me and making me doubt writing about it. I was going nowhere with the essay. After much consideration, I disposed of the subject and started a new one. The new one was about music and its stimulation, thus giving the reader and I a common ground. Second, the grading after turning in would be fair. If everyone had to write about one topic, the grading would be based upon who wrote the better. But, with the option of choosing a topic, the grading would be more upon individuality and the concept’s presentation, making it fair for everyone. Like advantages, there are also disadvantages that I noticed when doing this type of work. First, when starting essay 3, I was uncertain about using â€Å"I†. In high school, I was taught to not use â€Å"I† at all in a paper. It was a struggle for me to use â€Å"I† because I did not know what to say. I felt as if the quotes would make my own opinions matter at all.