This course is a requirement for freshmen and satisfied the Foundations Level Course. The theme for this class was Censorship and because of this we spent the first half of the semester reading articles about censorship in movies and comics. We were then supposed to write well thought out reflections in which we answered questions relating to the topic. These assignments were meant to improve our writing and our ability to follow directions. Later in the semester, we learned about persuasive techniques and had to write an argument analysis in which we analyzed the testimony of Dee Snider when defending his band Twisted Sister against allegations of offensive song lyrics and inappropriate merchandise. Our last assignment in this class was a research project in which we chose a topic that was interesting to us and researched it. We then had to write a research narrative discussing the research process and our findings as well as create a poster to be presented on Longwood’s research day and an in class presentation. My research project was on how standardized testing affects students learning. By completing this class my writing has improved immensely and I am now comfortable in conducting research and using the library’s database.

Click Here! ENGL 165 Research Narrative

Stella Morris, Spring 2019 Above is the link for my research narrative from ENGL 165. This paper allowed me to get my first glimpse at what research at Longwood is all about and has taught me many useful skills such as making use of the library database.

Reflection: As previously stated, the last assignment I completed in ENGL 165 was the research narrative. Personally I believe that it turned out well in the end but, to be completely honest I was very nervous about writing this paper. I had never done a college research project before and the requirements for this paper were different than any other paper I had ever written. Instead of simply listing out the information from each source I had found, I was supposed to display the information in such a way so that it seemed like the sources were discussing the topics amongst themselves. Confusing right? It was a major challenge for me and there were moments when I thought I should just scrap the whole thing and start over. However, with help from my professor I was able to write a better paper than I ever thought possible; though I do know that there is always room for improvement. I also know now that all of the things I learned in that class prepared me for that assignment as well as future ones I will have throughout my time at Longwood.