Monday, September 8, 2008

Exploratory Essay

When working on the exploratory essay I had to go through several steps. First I began to think for possible careers related to professional writers to cover. This was easy because I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do in life and what type of jobs are available. I also have experience in my field of broadcasting so I already had first hand knowledge to go off of. After deciding on the type of job to study I then started to reflect on possible interview research subjects. Once I thought of the people who have helped me and who are my superiors at the radio station I work for I immediately knew who would be perfect. From then on my essay was simple. I just mapped out a path for completing my research and why I would be doing certain things. I provided the activities and responsibilities my subject takes part in on a daily basis. This was to show him in a credible light and why he is a legitimate person to cover for the project. It also allowed the reader to understand how his position connects to the work of a professional writer and editor. The rest of my paper goes over the process I will incorporate when studying my subjects job and everything that includes. I state how I will be able to use this research as a tool to reflect on during my career. My subject may give me a glimpse of what activities I may be doing in the future. Questions I will ask and possible answers to them are added to the essay. The answers are only predictions of what I think may be reasons for what the subject needs to do and why. I will later be able to look back on my exploratory essay at the beginning of my research in order to determine just how much I actually do know about my subjects job. I will have a chance to see if I truly understand how people in broadcasting and media write.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This sentence in your description stood out to me:

"The rest of my paper goes over the process I will incorporate when studying my subjects job and everything that includes."

The way you describe your writing process seems to suggest that the topics you discussed just came naturally through the act of writing your essay (that is, in your description, the activity of finding a topic to write about seemed to be the most mental labor intensive task of your entire process). Were you to be producing a more formal research project exploring your writing process, you'd want to describe and analyze in more specific detail how you decided to talk about topics A, B, and C in your essay instead of X, Y, and Z; how you came to these topics in the first place; how your phrasing or description of these topics shifted through multiple drafts, etc.