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Class Reflections

 I have learned so much about the processes of designing a sound research study throughout class. Before taking this class, the idea of constructing a full research proposal was intimidating. But because of this class, I have learned that it is a fairly straightforward process if you break it down into easier chunks. Start with a research question, then see what literature/research has already been published on said question. Then use that information to compile a literature review and identify the gap that your research could help fill. Then, determine which research method would be most beneficial for researching your question. There are quantitative, qualitative surveys, qualitative observations, etc. From there, you can begin to design your research methodology and plan your research process. After that, you need to write out how you will analyze your data, and add in your implications and abstract. When breaking the proposal into these chunks and taking them one at a time, a f...
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Plans for Revision

 I now have my research proposal outlined with an abstract written. My plans for revisions are to go in and expand on a few ideas that I didn't explain enough. I'm also going to be designing my research methods and making sure I have a good system of analysis for that. I'm going to go into my Literature Review section and combine some paragraphs together so that they communicate one idea at a time. Then I'm also going to add two more sources so that it's thoroughly researched.
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Research Gap

 After compiling together my sources and writing a literature review with them, I have identified a Research Gap in perspectives. Any source I could find that talked about templates usually had done research in the context of education. They discussed how templates could be used in teaching future technical writers. The few that I found taking place in the professional workplace weren't directly about template usage.  I wrote in my literature review specifically that, " It would benefit the technical writing community greatly if more research were done specifically on the use of technical templates within the workforce and how the use of technical templates affects a writer’s ability to think critically over time." I also added in that research like this could be applied by formulating, " guidelines on when it is appropriate to use templates and how to use them ethically to limit the shrinkage in critical thinking for writers everywhere while still capitalizing on th...
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Tentative Sources

 I unfortunately right now only have two tentative sources, but it's better than none! I plan to do more research this week and add to the list as I begin to also annotate. On the bright side, I have confirmed my topic idea. I want to research the role of technical document templates and how they measure up to original "from scratch" work. For instance, I would like to see if companies prefer a memo created from a template or "from scratch" more. I'm excited to see what this research brings up. https://research.ebsco.com/c/5pbjd6/viewer/html/b6u4xqdozj https://research.ebsco.com/c/5pbjd6/viewer/pdf/eovecubzjb
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Topic Interests

 I am excited to pick a topic to begin researching during this course. My hope is that through this course I will gain a newfound confidence when it comes to researching for projects in school, the workforce, and beyond. I have a few ideas on what I may want to research but I don't know if I've landed on any specific topic yet. Of course, an easy idea would be to research the effects of AI on the field of technical writing; however I feel that the topic is a little too current. I also think it would be interesting to research the correlation between students earning undergraduate degrees in technical writing and their job outlook in the field after graduation. I just don't know if either of these topic will actually have enough info to fulfill a full research project.
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