REFLECTION

This semester, I am taking a great effort in researching and writing the paper titled "How Does Visual Communication Influences Your Children--The Secret of Advertising". I have found some writing rules and interesting tactics in writing process. These new discovery helped me to keep thinking and keep typing, the same with the Blog Name "Doris Keeps Typing". It is really an approach to improve writing skills and increasing the mood in writing.

To tell the truth, I don't like research paper. I guess most students at my age have the same feeling. I always thought that research papers are written by very experienced and advanced scholars who study some particular subjects. Furthermore, it takes a lot of time in researching and formatting my APA. Seems to be wasting time in the format. This continued in my 500-word drafting.

Things changed a lot at the middle of the semester. When I was preparing for the podcast, I got a lot of information and found it not that boring to search for academic journals and scholars. The reason is I became interested in what I was doing. Interest is the best teacher, I guess. Because it comes with me all the time I eager to know more about my topic. Finally, I found that researching is not only for completing the paper, but also for improving oneself.

At the beginning, I research for what I need to use in my paper. Now I research for what is related with my paper, and read it through, reference is from its idea, not just the information. If I don't think about it, I cannot get the idea, nor to use it in my paper.

I think the most inefficient way to write a research paper is that read, read, read, and read as much as I can before referencing. There is a story: one can give another a cup of water only when he or she has dousin cans of water. To read more is a process of collecting water.

For my 1000-word draft, I decided my topic on visual communication for children—advertising and food have a great influence on children’s life. Because I found a lot of information about how people choose food and what advertisements tell the audience. I realized that food advertising has a big problem, which misleads children’s attitude on food. The 1000-word draft is a turning point for my project. I improved the idea.

For my podcast, I specifically analyzed the influence of food advertising. With examples and cases, I identified the influence and gave some tips to parents. For my slideshow, I showed some very creative pictures with an idea of defining food other than food. Food can become anything, it depends on us. From the searching, I found more journal articles to support my idea. The slideshow is my favorite part of the project because it comes with text, audio, and visual elements. All of them come together is efficient for communication.


Harvest season for this semester is coming. I hope to collect enough "water" before the final week. There is still a lot to work to do.
Thank you, my teacher and my TA.
I appreciate your help!