When I started doing my research, I did not know where to start. I was confused as to how to format my paper, and what topic to talk about. In order for me to write my literature review paper, I had to use the CCNY library databases. The databases that I used were Sciencedirect, Pubmed, and PsycArticles. These databases were very helpful because I could customized my search. I did not know what topic to include in my literature review, so I used the topic that I used for my first assignment, which was Post-Traumatic Stress disorder. I got interested in this topic because I wanted to know more about how PTSD can affect people’s behavior. My first assignment, a scientist profile, helped me because I already had some basic knowledge about PTSD. Since my scientist examines people’s attention and he wrote some articles about how PTSD can affect people’s attention, I decided to talk about PTSD affecting cognitive behavior. I struggled a lot because it was difficult for me to look for the research that I needed. I could not find an article that really caught my attention. When I felt that I was struggling I went to my tutoring session. By that time I had several articles about PTSD, but did not focus on one thing. One thing that really helped was the student workshop. My classmates gave me feedback on my first draft which was very unorganized. I talked about PTSD, but I had different topics that were related with PTSD. They told me that I needed to choose one theme for my paper.
When I went to my tutor, I went with the idea that I would talk about how PTSD can affect cognitive function, but she told me that my idea was to general. The essay would be much better if I talked about different treatments that can be used for PTSD. I did my research again, and decided to not use the articles that I had. It was a waste of time. I tried to look for articles that focused on treatments for PTSD. Sometimes I could not find the articles that focused on specific treatment. So everytime I choose an article, I looked at the reference and that really helped me to look for more articles about different treatments. My editing process did not change between my previous paper and this one. When I completed my draft, I send it to my tutor and she gave me feedback on my grammar and content. One lesson that I learned from my scientist profile is that I need to be careful with the way I cite my references. In my scientist profile, I did not pay too much attention to my references. However, this time I revised my reference two times to see if they were all correct.
I don’t feel very successful at addressing the assignment prompt because I did not know how to format my paragraphs and what to include. The first strategy that I addressed in my literature review assignment was “enhance strategies for, reading, drafting, revising, editing and self-assessment.” In this assignment, I had to read and analyze different sources, and for the literature review I had to draft and edit my paper. Another strategy that I addressed was “practice using various library resources, online databases, and internest to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects.” I feel like I addressed this strategy because I had to use different databases to do some research about PTSD and to search for different treatments. The last strategy that I addressed was “strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources).” I feel that I addressed this strategy because in order to write my literature review I had to evaluate my sources, quoting from the articles, summarizing, analyzing and citing my sources.
