Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Dagher, Debra
UWRT 1102-092
27 April 2015
found this source the best, because the video made it more interesting and Im a huge fan of
National Geographic documentaries. Also, Merriam-Websters online dictionary provided me
with basic definitions for my paper.
As I mentioned earlier in the reflection, I found out that using examples of other cities
and towns was not a reliable example. This surprised me a lot. I figured that more research would
be conducted after these stricter gun-laws were enacted to see if they even work. That narrowed
the focus of my project significantly. Instead of applying gun-control laws that affect the general
public, aim gun-control laws towards criminals and the illegal firearm trade. I found a lot of
research pertaining to criminals and how they get their guns, which I expected. Another thing
that surprised me was how many elderly people own guns, and how that is an added risk to
suicide at that age.
Writing has always been one of my stronger subjects, so writing the essay was the easy
part. Im a very opinionated person and because of this I have used I in other research papers
(against my teachers advice). Addressing the audience helped me explain my stance on the topic
before I dove into the research, which enhanced my paper. I like how we were allowed to do this.
I didnt have a hard time writing that part, it just felt weird being encouraged to include it.
Whenever I complete an essay I never feel like it is enough, so I got that feeling with this paper.
My peer-review edits showed that I had a pretty good paper, but to me it never is. It felt good to
complete it and arrive at a thesis, since that isnt done until the end of the paper. Forming a thesis
at the end of my paper, was definitely the most rewarding part.
The format of the exploratory essay was the main thing different from other research
papers I have written. The research part was familiar to me, but waiting till the end to form my
thesis was different. One thing new that I did was use the UNCC Library page to find sources.
Also, I had never used a documentary as one of the main resources for a major research paper. I
knew a lot about gun laws in North Carolina already, since Im a legal gun owner; but there were
some specifics that I was unaware of. I also learned about the danger of an elderly person owning
a firearm. This goes hand in hand with young people using guns. I was aware of the dangers of
younger people owning guns previous to this project, but that is why I was taught proper gun
safety. Before this essay my stance was that gun-control laws would not reduce violence and was
pointless. After this essay, I learned that gun-control laws could reduce violence, if they were
aimed at the right people.