Self Study Research Essay FINAL

8/10/2019 Self Study Research Essay FINAL

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them. When it came to down to it though, it was not that I didnt want to learn more, I just

genuinely thought it was nearly impossible to learn anything else that I didnt already know .

Consequently, this study became somewhat of a challenge to me. I wanted to give forth my all

just to see how much I could really come to find out about myself.

Methodology

After deciding which study, I then had to choose categories I thought best fit to get the

most useful information from. I ended up separating them into seven main categories, that

included the date and time of activity, start to finish, the name of the activity, the level at which I

had concentrated on said activity (1-5), my level of productivity (1-5), how I was feeling after or

during the activity (1-5), where I was at the time and the materials I used. Along with those

categories I added two more just to maximize my information, which included distractions that

may have happened during the activity and my opinion on the activity. After the categorizing

was done, I began my log on September first, recording any kind of reading and writing activity I

participated in on my iPad. I chose to keep track of data using my iPad because it was easier and

more efficient then using pen and paper and from my research it is easy to see that it was always

in use and conveniently nearby. From that point on, I went on with my life as usual taking it

upon myself to have my iPad and be able to write down my categorized data any time I was

submerged in such an activity. In the course of the seven days of collecting information the

activities I participated in included math and any other kind of academic homework, such as

discussion boards, reading articles, textbooks and any internet research, as well any kind of

quizzes or tests. I also recorded all the classes I attended during the week, and an abundance of

personal reading. I chose not to record my text messages or any other two second activities

individually because I would get a few very periodically and typically I would be in the middle


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of something else while doing it, so I put them mostly in the interruptions category depending on

what they had distracted me from.

After the seven days of constantly logging and recording data I had paragraphs of notes

from which I had to transfer onto a chart, and once that was finished I was faced with six pages

worth of charted information. I did not know how I was going to be able to decipher it all but

once recalling both the readings of Sondra Perls The Composing Process of Unskilled College

Writers and Paul Priors Tracing Process: How Texts Come Into Being I realized the best

way to go about the surplus of data was to use coding. With a whole week of information I found

it to be a little more challenging than in the use of the think out loud protocol like both Prior and

Perl had used but it still showed to be quite useful. The codes I used were in some ways vague

but it easily grouped everything in my logs in a more manageable way. These codes included

reading for fun, writing for fun, academic reading, academic writing and miscellaneous reading

which summed up just about everything I did.

Results and Findings

I cant say my findings were ground shattering breakthroughs but I can say I found out

quite a bit about myself that I wouldnt have prior to this study. I took as much time as I possibly

could to sit down and draw such conclusions having to mentally analysis myself as well as the

data I provided, but once I had I was able to unearth some very interesting results. Results such

as my most productive day and my least productive day, what causes me the most damage when

it comes to concentration and productivity and how to avoid it, where I feel most comfortable

delivering my most rewarding work along with many other smaller discoveries about myself as

well.


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The first finding could be easily identified from just one glance of my daily logs. I found

my bedroom to be the most comfortable place to do everything. With such a result its easy to

conclude the reason being because its cozy and more familiar of place than anywhere else and

though I agree that that does have a part in it, I found it was more so for another reason. When it

came down to academic studying or reading and writing I never had a very high mood,

concentration or productivity range when I was anywhere with other people. I seem to enjoy

class very much in my findings but I never do actual work in many of my classes making it

easier to be around people but when it comes to actual pen to paper kind of work I was a mess

around others, whether this was math lab or library or if it was just down stairs around my

family, I just never got much done. For example, math is probably my biggest academic

occurrence in my data, and on September the third when I had been attending the class I had a

mood of 2 out of 5. The thought I added to my affect was that I felt somewhat insecure or sad

having people sit so close to me while I had to solve problems and I felt that they would judge

me if I were to get it wrong. Solving problems in class was one thing but even when I wasnt

doing math or not in a class the smallest distraction of another person could easily ruin my focus

for the rest of the night. Another example was September second, when I was trying to read Prior

in the study, my dad came in and though he had not been making any noise I was utterly

annoyed, I couldnt comprehend a single sentence after and ended up finding comfort in yet

another distraction; my phone. I did not go back to reading prior that night. My room is the only

place I know I can be entirely secluded and it is always quiet there as well. Now I know that

perhaps in math I need try to sit on my own before class to work more efficiently and close the

study doors when I know I need to be alone, but even with all that my bedroom is where I need

to be to really put forth my best effort.


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Though I know I must have everything quiet when I am writing or reading, for anything math

related I must have music playing. Antithetic to how I am doing any other work, when it comes

to math I cant concentrate for long periods of time without music, and this could be of any kind,

silence just doesnt do me any good when it comes to that subject. For instance, the MALL or I

call it the math lab in my logs, is the environment opposite of what is suitable for my

productivity, and is where I am forced to be three hours out of every week. In my log when I

attended an hour in a half of that time on September second, I could hardly make it above a 2.5

out of 5 for productivity, concentration or mood and the same goes for when I attended a second

time that week. The environment is quiet, and even worse cramped, both times going I

commented that I hated it. Its fairly easy to see how inefficient being in the math lab is to me

once I compare the visit of that same exact day to being at home in my own comfort, with music

I might add. My productivity level rocketed to a 5 out of 5 and I was able to stay focused

throughout the completion of the assignment. This was a habit there is not much I can do about

because the math lab is a part of my grade but it is frustrating that they cant see that every

person works differently and though the lab is for help, it does me personally more bad than

good.

Another habit I managed to identify from the data chart was that anytime I engaged in academic

work that put me at a low mood of around 2 or 1, I would go and read for fun, which always

seemed to up my spirits again. Its a small consistent habit but it seems to do a lot of good to my

well-being especially when I do it right before going back to an academic assignment. Now since

my analysis, I feel no shame in and actually take it upon myself to read for entertainment when I

am feeling low or before doing any academic work. Another mood kill however is definitely the

time of day, I tended to work during this time in my logs but would state in my description or


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mood that I was in fact tired and this is always around, 3pm-5pm. My data shows that I can get

work done at that time if it needs to be done but it does put a heavy damper on my mood and

even understanding of the material. In the future I will definitely try to avoid doing any heavy

work around those times and maybe take a nap to better insure my understanding of a subject

and quality of work. Understanding material also takes a toll on my concentration like a domino

effect, so its a self-discovery I am really glad I found. Admittedly, Im sure my fatigue has

something to do with staying up all hours of the night reading, which is also very obvious in my

research, I probably should limit myself more and get to bed earlier.

This last finding I wish I had a little more time to re-analyses and repeat the process. In which I

would have been able to do if I had done the study for one or two more weeks but I felt despite

how accurate the data might be it still seemed beneficial to me and I personally found the

information to make a lot of sense. Along with the coding, I also decided to calculate an average

for concentration, productivity and mood for each day and compared them to one another side by

side. I only have seven days worth of record but I found that my greatest day of productivity

was Tuesday where it averaged to be 4.25out of 5 at least 1 higher than any other day, and I had

the highest mood for this day as well averaging a 3.8. I found this very interesting because I

never have too much due on a Tuesday, I only have one class that day and though I only have

one class Monday as well, no one like a Monday and I cant be productive at all Friday so

Tuesday to me made a lot of sense. However weirdly enough my highest days of concentration

were tied between Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, where they all averaged to be a 3 out of 5,

this I felt to be the inaccuracy of the one week study that could have easily been rectified with a

few more weeks if I had had that time. Lastly however I found that my lowest day of

concentration, productivity and mood was Sunday, this was truly amusing. The reason for this


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could very well be just because I had very little data collected that day compared to every other

day but it was because I hadnt really done anything that day so it still makes sense. I dont want

to be productive or concentrate on a Sunday of course but I never knew it would show up so

clearly in my log.

Conclusion

Through the past seven days of my research along with the added on hours of analyzing

and scrutinizing piles of data, I have come to very much appreciate this self-study process. It had

allowed me to learn things about myself that I never would have been able to without such

information. The small flaws and habits of my studying that I found, are the tools I needed to not

only improve myself as a student but also to better understand myself just for my personal well-

being. I am grateful to have participated in such a thought changing process. I am proud with the

information I had acquired and I feel good about having chosen the week long study to begin

with because I very much feel that I have gained more information than I ever could have with

the speak out loud protocol. Though the study gave me all that I wanted and more, I do think if I

ever were to conduct the same study again I feel I would have detracted the personal

information. With me personally I felt my personal reading completely overwhelmed my

academic information, making it harder to better distinguish study habits, along with that maybe

I would conduct the study a little longer maybe another week or so, like I had suggest before, just

to make certain of my days of the week findings. Despite that, I found this research to be

worthwhile and I am so certain that anyone who better wishes to improve themselves or just

wants to come to a better understand of their work habits should really consider conducting a


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self-study because I know this is something I will never be able to forget and I am sure will even

benefit me for years to come.

Works Cited

Perl, Sondra. The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers. Writing about Writing: A

College Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Leasa Burton, 2011.

615-639. Print.

Prior, Paul. Tracing Process: How Texts Come into Being. Writing about Writing: A College

Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Leasa Burton, 2011. 492-

526. Print.

"National Writing Project." Sondra Perl. New York City Writing Project, n.d. Web. 16 Sept.

2014.


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Dear Jada,

I think overall your essay was well written and it remained interesting throughout

because you made it personal to you. A couple things I suggest your essay needs are

mainly about your thesis and the structure of the paper. Your audience needs to knowwhat the paper is about and why It matters to them, so make sure that you create a

understandable thesis that is backed up by the information you provide in your data,

and in the body of your text. Your structure is good, but I would try reading your

entire essay and think about what kind of information would go best before or after

other information. For example, at the beginning of your methodology section I

thought it would be a good idea to move the details about how you decided to use that

methodology into the paragraphs before because it goes along with the other

information you had mentioned and because it made the methodology purely about

the results and process of your study. I really hope anything I have written or spoken

with you about your essay can help you with your final draft and I wish you luck onyour assignment.

Sincerely,

Jack OConnell

Dear Jada,

I personally really enjoyed reading your paper because I found lots of similarities to

mine. We both conducted the weeklong study, which made us relate a lot more to

each other when reviewing each others papers. I would suggest reading over your

paper and cutting some of your sentences. As one of your questions said, you wanted

to know if how you wrote sounded like you talking and I did pick up on that because

of some run on sentences. However, if you would just split them up into two

sentences, I think you had very strong points. I also think for organization wise, you

should read over the CARs model and try to somewhat structure your paper into it.

One other minor thing was that I saw a couple grammatical and spelling errors. Otherthan that I thoroughly enjoyed reading your paper and hope you get a good grade.

Sincerely,

Casey Paris

Self Study Research Essay FINAL

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