While writing this project, I learned a lot about the writing process. This was the first project where we had to really focus on our citations, which was a big obstacle for me. Up until a week ago I had never cited a paper in MLA format, so I had to rely heavily on an MLA format book I bought in the Union. I think that it took me an entire afternoon to figure out how to properly cite my paper, but now I feel like I could cite with my eyes closed. Even though it seems like it should be common knowledge, I learned that research is the key to a good paper. I wish that I could say that I didn’t spend an entire week solely looking up research, but if I did I would be a liar. There were a lot of differing arguments in The New York Times for my topic, so I had to be very specific in finding my research. It took my a while to finally start discovering information, but once I did it felt as if I was blazing through articles. At the end of the drafting process, I think I had printed out over fifteen different articles and completely drained the ink from my printer. The most important thing that I learned was discussed in class on Friday. When we did the project focusing on writing style, it hit me that I had a real problem with this. When Mrs. Forgette started taking out unnecessary words and stabilizing the flow of the paragraphs I knew that if I wanted to improve my grade I needed to do that. I will admit that once I finish a paper I think that it is time to submit when I really should be reading over it with a fine comb. I tried to do this for my argument and trust me when I say that nearly one hundred words came out.

One of the biggest questions I had throughout the writing process was using 1st person. I faintly remember someone, perhaps Mrs. Forgette, say that we shouldn’t really use 1st person in the unit because it needs to be credible. I tried to google it to see the correct way but there were way too many conflicting responses. When it came time for the peer review Wiki, I got a comment back that said I needed to use more 1st person in my paper to make it more relatable, which through me for a loop. I decided to write my paper without talking about “I” but about “we”. Whenever I addressed something that needed to be done, I would say “we need to ….”. I felt like because this issue pertains to everyone, we shouldn’t exclude people, but be united instead. Another question I had was with the researching criteria. We had to use research that came from the library guides only, which bugged the everliving crap out of me. I understand that this unit is all about credibility but if I can find a source that is 100% credible through regular google I think that I should be able to use it. Maybe I feel this way because I found a good ten sources from regular google before I actually read the instructions and saw that none of those were going to work. I blame myself for that one.

The greatest opinion that I have after this project is that seriousness of the drinking problem. I have grown up around people that drink, and I knew that coming to college I would be around more people that drink. I never would have imagined how bad the problem until I read all of the statistics from research. It was scary to see all of the horrific numbers and then to think that its literally happening all around me. I think that everyone should inform themselves on this issue, because it truly effects every single one of us.