It is one thing to have ideas about a subject, another thing to get expertise in that same subject, but a whole different thing to write about it and be assessed on it. I wrote my scientific research paper and the paper was reviewed by two of my peers and my instructors.
To be honest, the process of wrinting the paper was much more frustrating than recieving feedback. People were generally very nice to my paper and I (is that even a good thing?) and gave really constructive feedback. Their comments were really specific and helpful which made me gladly notice that they took the time to read and understand the paper. But bottom line, they all understood what I meant without the background I had on the subject. They understood it all, and I guess that's really what I wanted to get for a first draft ever.
They also liked the studies I used to illustrate my argument... It took me so long to find them. The truth is there is very little research done on stress on the continent, and the few (very few) people that do, well the simply sell it. That article was a blessing, and I hope to find one or two more for my second draft (fingers crossed) as it was suggested to me by my instructor.
The areas I need to work on are paragraphing and wrapping up. The first one is fairly easy to do, but the second one is a bit more complex. I had started talking about coping mechanisms in my first conclusion and my reviewers found it very interesting. They wanted to know more about it. But coping mechanisms make up a huge topic in their own. And I'd have to do more research on it. Coping mechanisms are often cultural and are studied by anthropologists or behavioural psychologists - areas that I have been avoiding slightly because they can be so vast and because I guess I wanted to keep the paper as scientific as possible. I guess I'll have to struggle with it now, better now than never right? And isn't struggling to get answers the whole point of taking this class anyway.
Off to work I go!
