Dear Reader,
I chose to write a research paper on alcoholism because it was the strongest topic in both of the books that I read; The Glass Castle and Let's Not Go to the Dogs Tonight. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls’ father is an alcoholic and has a bad temper. He has no patience with anyone who doesn’t view the world the way he does. In Let’s Not Go to the Dogs Tonight, the mother turns to alcohol because of depression that came after her baby son died. Learning about alcoholism is important to me because I want to become more aware of all the factors that it encompasses and to find out how to deal with and avoid it.
Before researching, I knew that it doesn’t take much for someone who drinks one drink per day to turn into an alcoholic. I knew that an alcoholic depends on alcohol more than anything else, and that they can be selfish. They can also be controlling, and think of nothing else besides where their next drink will come from. From my two books, I knew that each person comes from a different background and life experience, and has a different motive as to why they start drinking.
Some of my research questions include… How does alcohol affect family members? How does alcoholism affect other people? What are the long term consequences of being an alcoholic? I ended up choosing, how alcoholism affects other people, as my research question. I wanted to not only know about family members, but friends and co-workers. To me, a good research question includes answering something new, is based on and builds upon previous research, is practical, and is specific.
The resources I used to find my information were mainly medical websites. I ended up not using as much information from the databases as I expected. My process of finding information was to search key words and terms and click whichever website looked credible. Some of the terms I searched were alcohol, alcoholics, and alcoholism.
I learned the drinking limits for females as opposed to males. I also learned that alcoholism is hereditary and that children of alcoholics are more likely to become addicted to alcohol themselves. In addition, I discovered that there are four major categories that children of alcoholics tend to fall under.
The most challenging thing about this project was my research paper. I had never written anything worth so much of my grade and so it was difficult to organize my paper and think of new things to say. The most enjoyable part about this project was making my Infographic. I liked how many different options and formats there were to choose from.
If I had to do this project over, I would not procrastinate and work on it a little at a time. I would ask more questions and get a better understanding of what the project consisted of and what was expected. I thought I was pretty organized throughout the project and that seemed to help me. In the beginning, I printed out the deadlines and the description of each part and numbered them in the order they were due.
My research makes a difference to me because I can better understand families experiencing the effects of alcoholism. Researching alcoholism can make a difference to others because it can teach them not to judge someone because they might be going through something bad at home. I am proud that I finished this project because it was stressful and was my first major project for an English class.
Sincerely,
Catherine Brown
I chose to write a research paper on alcoholism because it was the strongest topic in both of the books that I read; The Glass Castle and Let's Not Go to the Dogs Tonight. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls’ father is an alcoholic and has a bad temper. He has no patience with anyone who doesn’t view the world the way he does. In Let’s Not Go to the Dogs Tonight, the mother turns to alcohol because of depression that came after her baby son died. Learning about alcoholism is important to me because I want to become more aware of all the factors that it encompasses and to find out how to deal with and avoid it.
Before researching, I knew that it doesn’t take much for someone who drinks one drink per day to turn into an alcoholic. I knew that an alcoholic depends on alcohol more than anything else, and that they can be selfish. They can also be controlling, and think of nothing else besides where their next drink will come from. From my two books, I knew that each person comes from a different background and life experience, and has a different motive as to why they start drinking.
Some of my research questions include… How does alcohol affect family members? How does alcoholism affect other people? What are the long term consequences of being an alcoholic? I ended up choosing, how alcoholism affects other people, as my research question. I wanted to not only know about family members, but friends and co-workers. To me, a good research question includes answering something new, is based on and builds upon previous research, is practical, and is specific.
The resources I used to find my information were mainly medical websites. I ended up not using as much information from the databases as I expected. My process of finding information was to search key words and terms and click whichever website looked credible. Some of the terms I searched were alcohol, alcoholics, and alcoholism.
I learned the drinking limits for females as opposed to males. I also learned that alcoholism is hereditary and that children of alcoholics are more likely to become addicted to alcohol themselves. In addition, I discovered that there are four major categories that children of alcoholics tend to fall under.
The most challenging thing about this project was my research paper. I had never written anything worth so much of my grade and so it was difficult to organize my paper and think of new things to say. The most enjoyable part about this project was making my Infographic. I liked how many different options and formats there were to choose from.
If I had to do this project over, I would not procrastinate and work on it a little at a time. I would ask more questions and get a better understanding of what the project consisted of and what was expected. I thought I was pretty organized throughout the project and that seemed to help me. In the beginning, I printed out the deadlines and the description of each part and numbered them in the order they were due.
My research makes a difference to me because I can better understand families experiencing the effects of alcoholism. Researching alcoholism can make a difference to others because it can teach them not to judge someone because they might be going through something bad at home. I am proud that I finished this project because it was stressful and was my first major project for an English class.
Sincerely,
Catherine Brown