Jessica Mena

Professor Berghof

Writing 39C

13 November 2015

Reflective Intro D1

            I have always struggled with writing and have found the writing process of my previous writing classes and this class to be very difficult. In particular for writing 39C I have struggled with the research part of the Historical Context Project and the Advocacy Project as well as integrating the information from the scholarly sources that I have acquired in both my essays and organizing my ideas. Since this class has been my first research class and the first time I have written a research paper I was extremely nervous in writing my HCP. My topic for the HCP was on the effect the Welfare Queen Stereotype has had on African American women.

          Before writing my first draft of my HCP I had an idea of what research question I wanted my essay to address but I just did not know how to put it in words. Therefore; for my first draft I did not focus on the most important part which was to show the damage that the negative stereotype of (SCREENSHOT 1) Welfare Queen has on African American women. Instead I just focused more on the history of African American women on welfare and explained the term “welfare queen.” In the first comments from my first draft of my HCP, screen shot 1, that I received from Professor Berghof she advised me to “establish the significance of the problem;” however, I did not do so until my final draft.

As a result, for my second draft of the HCP I had a difficult time trying to organize my ideas. For example, I stated the significance of the problem which was that the negative stereotype of the welfare queen has caused psychological problems to African American women towards the end of my essay, 5^th paragraph (SCREANSHOT 2), rather than stating the significance of the problem at the beginning of my HCP. The specific comments that I received in my second draft of my HCP helped me emphasize more on the significance of the problem for my final HCP and also it helped me organize my essay better in the way that I really thought about how I wanted to present my ideas and how I wanted them to make them flow.  With the comments that I received I came to realize and focus my attention in the parts of my essay where I was I did not develop well enough for the final HCP.

          For my final draft I moved the part of the psychological damages African American women have suffered due to the stereotype, my 5^th paragraph of my second draft, to the beginning of my final essay and focused more on the significance of the problem by answering the questions that I received from the feedback. The screenshot of my introduction of my final HCP shows how

establishing the significance of the problem helped me elaborate the causes of the welfare queen stereotype by going more in depth and researching more about the low self-esteem that African American women face which in result makes them feel trap in the welfare system because they cannot obtain a job. Stating the significance of the problem in the beginning helped me indicate that the problem is still significant today rather than starting my HCP with giving history of the stereotype which I could have used in the body paragraphs on my research paper when I presented the multi-model from the past.