ENGL 6401-50 - FALL 2025

With the research proposal finished and submitted, I have now been asked to reflect on my work and what I have learned this semester. The specific reflection questions Professor Bacabac has posited are twofold, so quoting from her directly: 1. "What have you learned about the processes of designing a sound research study in class?" 2. "What have these processes taught you about your future roles as a technical/professional communicator and digital rhetorician?" On the first, I now have a fleshed-out, systematic framework for writing and conducting research myself. While I had already read other scholarly articles and been briefed on how to read them (such as sections to prioritize and sections to skip, for example), being on the other end of the paper and writing it from scratch — or at least, writing the research proposal from scratch — was a different experience. As it turns out, it was messier and more plodding than the finished, tidied-up final product mak...

Having met with Professor Florence Bacabac online a few days ago, I had the opportunity to go over my materials and gameplan for the final Research Proposal due in a few weeks. Besides having the chance to explain my work and my process, I also had the chance to review her comments on my initial Literature Review submission and to clarify, tweak, and refine my existing Research Proposal Outline — often in ways I wasn't quite expecting. First, my initial submission for the Literature Review was mostly solid and well-put together, though there were a handful of edits and corrections she suggested I make. In particular, I have a tendency to "overthink" my diction and sentence constructions, and while this lends itself to a vivid and precise writing style, it also means there are cases where I write phrases or passages that are overly complicated or convoluted... which misses the whole point. As such, I kind of had to nix those. I also had occasional issues with formatting m...