I. Introduction
I can speak from experience when I say that taking English 112 has helped me learn a lot and develop beyond my aspirations. Since I had never written such a lengthy paper before, I must admit that I was initially truly anxious about the assignment regarding the research argument. Even so, I've always found the writing class to be difficult, but it has also inspired me to improve my writing style. The current essay highlights the development of my literary and writing abilities as I prepared my argument research paper, and provides my progress in the creation of outlines, thesis statement, making use of credible sources and citing in MLA format.
II. Prewriting, drafting, and organizing
I have always faced challenges in putting my thoughts flow coherently in writing papers. For this, I learnt that it is essential to acknowledge the type of paper one is writing about and draft an outline to help in coming up with a comprehensive and well researched argument paper. As such, in drafting the research argument, I came up with the outline to act as a guide to my research on the topic with regards. In this way, I utilized the research argument to improve my research and writing skills.
III. In the drafting and organization of the research argument paper
I took to online research to gather information I would need in starting out my paper. While organization has always been my major concern in my write-ups, the outline was elemental in helping me overcome this challenge. In this regard, therefore, to begin a paper, it is crucial to develop an outline with key ideas the paper will aim to address for research purposes. A clearly thought-out and developed outline will be elemental in the organization and starting the writing of the draft. In essence, the outline helps in the preparation towards writing the thesis statement, the body and conclusion of the research paper.
IV. Credible researching and documenting
Having credible information from credible sources is key to quality and comprehensive research papers. Location of credible sources has always been my major concern in my research works as a writer. In this regard, the paper allowed me the chance of making use of secondary sources to back up my research argument. In my research argument to illegalize prostitution, I found credible sources to back my claim that the practice is dangerous and unethical. In this regard, the knowledge of how to locate peer-review journal articles and scholarly books had a significant role in widening my scope of the research and was pivotal in the development of the research argument.
V. Revision, Editing and proof-reading
I have the chance to revise the research argument paper. Revision was helpful as I had the opportunity of improving the flow through proofreading to identify grammatical errors, flow of information and formatting issues and edited them accordingly. Besides, in the revision process, I looked up the MLA format located in the Purdue University to help in the documentation of the in-text citations and the references page.
VI. Conclusion
In conclusion, as a writer, the English 112 course has played a significant role in helping me improve my research and writing skills. Contextually, through the research argument paper, I was able to appreciate the role of outlines in research works and overall research paper organization. Besides, I had the chance to articulate my area of interest in the chosen topic and give credit to researchers in the topic through appropriate citation. In essence, as was my expectation for the course outcome, the course has also helped me improve in overall drafting, proofreading, formatting, and editing as well citing credible sources through the research paper.
