End of Week 6 Update

Hello everyone better late than ever, but I am here to update you on how week six went for me. First and foremost it has been one of the hardest weeks in a very long time, but I am still standing thankfully. Now, I want to reflect on the building blocks that helped me write my first ever literature review. For one, having assignments that introduced us to research papers and having to annotate them really helped me choose my BIG three sources that I wanted to use in my review. Annotating also taught me what to look for in a research study. Another building block would have to be definitely twitter, because it allowed me to explore the animal I wanted to focus on. Following so many accounts ranging from marine biologist to organization that focus on the animal I chose. This also allowed me to also learn from my peers, a very great tool. The final thing I could say really allowed me to prepare for this literature review would be the annotated bibliography because it allowed us to learn how to introduce the authors and title of the research study. As well as allowed us to really learn how to summarize the research study.

When I look at my literature review and see the minimum requirements I feel confident in the work I put in, of course I am not saying there isn't room for improvement because that would be crazy to get it perfect right off the bat. Where I believe I felt short would have to be on my citations throughout the essay. I didn’t put direct quotes, I mainly paraphrased which I think is okay, but I know it’s good to add direct quotes sometimes. What I believe I did effectively would have to be the way I organized my review the way I wrote and developed each source.

Now, for the SMC I have chosen the issue of water pollution and how it affects marine life and how that affects dolphins in particular. I know that our pollution has gotten worse and worse each passing year and that it’s harming our marine life. One organization that I believe would be great would be the Wild Dolphin Project because they study the animals in a non invasive way.