Reflectoin on Chapter 4 of Ball Point

The opening paragraph of Chapter 4 of Ball Point is spot on when it says that students either take a head on approach to writing a research paper or fearing the concept. Ball Point makes it sound so easy when it says, "When writing a ―Research Paper,‖ you
generally pick a topic, find a list of sources that provide information about the topic, and then
proceed to summarize what the sources say by using quotes from those authors." It honestly made me feel less scared of writing research paper, because I am one of those people who is afraid of the concept.

I like the fact that the Writing Program at Ball State has changed the aspect of writing a "Research Paper" to asking a question that interests you and doing research over it to answer it. Coming at a research project from that stand point is much easier for me, and I will assume it is for most people. It gives you more control. You're not given a topic and told to research it, you have free rein of the project. You find yourself enjoying learning more about the question that you picked.

I really liked that we are given the process of research when it comes to rhetoric. I also liked that we are given ways to "formalize our curiosity". Learning how to conduct an interview was also very helpful, because that is a source that I overlook most of the time because I was not sure how to do it. The Incorporating Quotes section also helped me out, because I feel that I have never incorporated quotes the way that it says to on Ball Point.

The MLA format is the format that I learned to write papers in while I was in high school, in Advanced Placement English. Although I have experience with it, I do not know it like the back of my hand, so I feel that having an example to refer to will be extremely helpful.

Chapter four was a lot more helpful for me than chapters 1, 2, and 3. It was still extremely dry, but there are a lot more points of reference that I can see myself using.