Overview of My Work This Week:

This week, I finished writing my paper. I spent the last week and a half writing the paper, and I completed the bibliography yesterday. I will continue to revise and edit the paper for clarity and flow. I have also been meeting weekly with my faculty mentor and have been working with her to give my paper more direction and structure. 

Future Plans:

I plan on continuing to edit my paper throughout this week. I also plan to complete my research poster this week. My goal is to complete every aspect of my project before leaving on July 9. 

Accomplishments and Goals:

I utilized the notes I took throughout my background reading to write my paper. I first created an outline with the arguments I planned to make, then discussed this with my faculty mentor. Once we modified the arguments and outline slightly, I wrote my paper around the outline. 

I also created a chart of critical population, economic, and demographic data on Japan and South Korea. I used this data to draw conclusions about the state of the aging population in both countries. I then created an appendix with these tables as well as definitions of each of the data points I collected.

Furthermore, I began creating my research poster. It will be data-driven and include charts and graphs to make it more eye-catching and engaging to the viewer. Once complete, I will share it with my faculty mentor and edit it as needed.

Finally, I have been having weekly meetings with my faculty mentor and have been maintaining our 48 hour policy. This has served us quite well as it gives me time to review her comments before our meeting so that I can ask any clarifying questions if needed.

Challenges:

One challenge I faced while conducting my research was finding time to sit down and write long portions of my paper. I work best when I am able to finish my chain of thought, whether that be a paragraph or longer section, in one sitting. Since my paper is quite long, I had to learn to adapt and be able to pause, then pick up my chain of thought at a later time. 

Another challenge I faced was integrating the texts I read earlier this summer into my paper. My research paper ended up focusing more on novel arguments rather than acting as a literature review, so the texts I read did not appear directly in my paper. However, I used what I learned from my background reading to improve my introduction and to provide more context for the arguments I made.