Salem 1

Omar Salem
Professor Blandford
Writing 1103
November 18 2015
Reflection
Your Idea:
When I first started with this idea, I wasnt exactly sure which way I was going with it
and I wasnt sure if I could actually write an entire paper about it. I remember the list we created
in class about all the topics and their opposites and decided that being a daughter was something
I didnt relate to. Since I had three sisters, the topic sparked my interest and I decided that doing
some research on what it is like to be a daughter would help me understand what my sisters went
through growing up. I wasnt exactly sure where to start but the question session we had in class
really helped and my fellow classmates helped me come up with some questions and sub topics
to research. Some of the questions and topics that they suggested for me to look into were things
like culture and region, Sharia law, how parents care for each child, religion, and daughters who
have broken the stereotype. I decided to narrow it down and really focus on the three main
aspects that affect my topic, religion, region/culture, and parent favoritism. When I began writing
my paper I was able to easily write two pages but then I became stagnant and couldnt write
anymore. I couldnt write enough on daughters without talking a little about sons and their
comparisons and women in general. So my focus became not only on daughters but also on
women and the discrimination that faced them.
Your Research:

Salem 2
I first began my research on parent favoritism because I was most interested in that aspect
of my research and was eager to learn which parent favors which child and why. I started off on
google and went through many resources until I found an article that was published on an online
magazine in the UK. In this article there were official surveys and polls that were taken that gave
me statistics on my topic which made it a valuable resource for me. It was hard to find sources
that actually provided me with statistics sense my topic was so opinion and experience based. I
also used a blog to grasp a better understanding of my topic through the thoughts and opinions of
others. The blog question was whether or not parents favor their sons or daughters and why? I
learned from this blog that mothers favor their sons and that fathers favor their daughters and
learned the many reasons as to why that was. I then used three sources to help me identify the
role that religion plays on the way daughters are brought up. My first source was a Jewish
website run by an educated Jewish staff who identified the roles of the children in a family and
the rules that the parents had to follow while raising their children. The second source I used was
an Islamic website that specifically gave the rules and obligations that a father had towards
raising his daughter and the importance of it. The last of the five main sources was a Christian
website that gave the story of a single Christian women and her opinions on the role of women in
a family based off of Christianity. This was by far the worst of my five sources because it was
highly biased and not a good representation of most Christians so I did not use it much.
The effect of your research on your direction:
When I first started the research on my topic I found a lot of information on parent
favoritism and quickly realized that I could write an entire paper based off of that aspect alone. I
was surprised to find that parents actually favorite their children based off of their gender and not
because of their behavior. I had trouble finding a reliable source discussing the affects of religion

Salem 3
on daughters and the way they are brought up. Most sites never mentioned daughters and only
talked about the role of a women to her husband and family based off of that religion which got
me very frustrated. I struggled to find a source that would provide me with that information until
I stumbled upon a research paper written about the affects of religion on families and their sons
and daughters. I also had trouble finding reliable sources on the different regions and the affect
they had on daughters. Most of the sources I found online really focused heavily on China/ Asia
and the Middle East and none of the other regions. I had to really look hard through data bases,
articles and websites to find the affects of other regions like Africa, Europe, and North America
on daughters/ women.
The writing of your essay:
Before writing my essay I sat down and organized my thoughts and ideas on paper, and
broke down the structure of my paper so I knew what to write and where to write it. I then began
researching my subtopics for each paragraph and wrote a little about each on the paper I was
breaking down my essay on. Once I had enough information about each subtopic I began to write
my first and, most of the time, my final draft. When I was done with my essay I got it peer
reviewed and polished It up to make sure there were no grammatical errors to my best
knowledge.
Your critique group:
My critique group helped me a lot with suggestions when I got stuck on certain parts of
my paper and gave me suggestions and advice on how to write certain things. They were able to
catch grammatical mistakes that I have overlooked and reword sentences that didnt make sense
to anyone other than me. The critique group definitely helped my process and allowed me to
reach my final product much quicker and more effectively.

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Your life as a researcher:
This project has been different form other research projects I have done before because I
had to research something that I didnt at all relate to which made it much harder. A lot of times
when you do a research project you choose a topic that you either can connect to or something
that really interest you. This was my first time doing a research topic that I didnt related to at all
and had very little prior knowledge of.
Your life as a learner:
I Learned how to analyze, synthesize, evaluate and reflect on my writing this semester. A
lot of times I would just write papers/ essays and never reflect or analyze them, doing so in this
class has definitely helped me become a better writer. I also learned what a literacy memoir was,
before this class I had never written one, and to be honest I actually enjoyed writing it. I also
learned about literacy and the many different types of literacies and how they could be used to
excel your writing. The stories read for the discussion posts also expanded my knowledge of
rhetoric situations and helped me reflect on the things that I have read. I feel like I have learned a
lot in this course, and really enjoyed the class as a whole.