Blogpost #5: Final Paper Reflection

At the beginning of the research, it was hard for me to find direct sources that I need, so I had to change my direction and approach the indirect research. I have to admit that the normal positive/negative effects would have been a rather mediocre and boring research paper. However, through the credited research I found and the way I put the information together, I think my paper had a good flow to it and was not as dry as it could have been. The biggest strength that I have for this paper is my personal experience as I was raised and born in the researched area. The professor’s advice to compare the changing Vietnamese’s attitudes towards American culture was really helpful. I did a brief comparison at the beginning of my paper and it made the research paper more interesting and gave the audience a general idea of what to expect in the paper. As mentioned above, I was lucky to have found multiple accredited sources in different areas that I did the research on. The sources were straight forward, comprehensible, and updated; hence, I was able to accurately interpret them and write my paper through my own understanding and put it in words that are logically clear. A related strength that I proudly possess is the ability to paraphrase accurately without intentional or unintentional plagiarism. I was strangely happy and proud when I learned that my originality report scored a 13 percent, even though I thought the low score was mostly because of the length of the paper. One of my most favorite things in my paper is the story of the backpack traveler, Nguyen Thi Khanh Huyen. The story was an inclusive example for everything I talked about in my paper. My biggest weakness in this paper is the countless technical errors (including grammar, spelling, word choice, and punctuation) I made. Much thanks to my full-rough-draft peer-review partner, Danis, who carefully and excellent fixed my mistakes and made my paper much less flawed. What could I have done to make it better? I probably could have gone in deeper about how parents and Government could help the young adults while preserving the precious Vietnamese culture and traditions.