How my process of doing academic research for this class has changed since the beginning of the semester is that I was never confident in finding good peer reviewed articles on rather difficult topics and trying to compare them to my research. With this class I was able to get even more experience with writing and finding significantly more reliable sources that help further my research. My writing has grown and I have noticed a drastic change in terms of writing for academic research.
The process that I had while trying to evaluating and finds sources that accurately tied into what i was looking for and actually applied to my question was rather difficult. I tried to look at separate articles that look at socioeconomic status as well as opinions on money being spent towards halting crime rates separately and tying them together within my literature review. I tried to find evidence of real opinions and real life things that were going wrong to base it off of and include in my research and that is how I chose which articles I should use or not. I did not add or change any sources for my final assignment because everything I found perfectly tied in everything that I needed to find my results. I think that some challenges I encounter when doing this assignment was that it was difficult at first to find articles that directly applied to what I was looking for. However, I was able to overcome it by finding assistance with the library help to find specific articles that would tie into my research.
My specific attitudes and perceptions about doing research and having to write and analyze an issue has changed over this course. I thought in the beginning upon receiving this topic it would be rather difficult to try and find a relationship between the two as well as trying to learn how to code. After this course and throughly learning what is involved with finding good research, I think that my attitudes have changed to an opening look and I find that researching and writing about it is actually a very interesting and important to be able to do. ” After this semester I think what it means to “think like a researcher” is that you have to be non-biased when finding out the most accurate response within your research. Even if it is the response is not what you were looking for. You have to be pretty open minded as well and not have a set opinion on what your responds are whatever they may be. You have to also be through in terms of trying to find the best sources and data available for what you are looking for.