Fulkerson's Article

WOW! What a great and informational article! It seems that with each new article I read for this class I say to myself, “gosh, if only I had known all of these things a couple of years ago!” :) I can only imagine the improved quality of those research papers!
Although I did find this article very helpful, it also left me in a state of confusion. I thought that I had my topics narrowed down for the most part, but I’m not so sure anymore! I think that I may not have thought in depth enough about what really interested me! Fulkerson said that when picking a topic, make sure it matters to you because; you have to live with it for the rest of the semester, you’re going to learn a great deal about the topic, and if you care about the topic, it will probably come through in the writing! These things are all so true! He also made a statement about doing research on some disease that has affected a friend or family member, and this interested me a lot. One of my best friends has suffered from Cystic Fibrosis all of her life. The disease has always intrigued me: I even became an active member in donating to the Cystic Fibrosis Research Fund. After reading Fulkerson’s article, I thought that this topic might me a good choice for me - or at least a good choice for my final three!
I also learned more about how research papers are arguments! This is something else that I never realized until the book reading from last week. I guess I always thought that the purpose of a research paper was just to provide as much information on the topic as possible – this is so, not true though! I also learned that there are a number of different ways to approach a research paper, and I thought it was great that Fulkerson gave so many examples in his article, I found this very helpful.
Lastly, the entry on “Five Ways That a Research Paper Can Go Wrong,” was very helpful! Fulkerson said, “The goal is to find the best answer currently available to the question you are dealing with.” This statement helped point me in the right direction in starting the actual research and thesis for my narrowed topics! Overall, what a great informational article this was! :)