Weeks 4-6 of the research process allowed me to really hone in on the writing and analysis aspects of the research process. I spent time with my mentor working out what my "thesis" would be. While I don't necessarily have a traditional argument, my mentor really encouraged me to try and find my own voice within the project. Even though I'm not trying to say or prove anything entirely original, she reminded me that I still have a perspective that is worth sharing through this project and that rather than regurgitating the information I have collected over the course of the research project, I have the opportunity to frame it in my own way and present it through a lens that may be new to others. Before creating my poster, I knew I wanted to write a paper. I felt like I would struggle to make an organized and well thought out poster without having put my thoughts down in a paper. Thus, the bulk of weeks 4-6 were spent writing and formulating ideas. I found this process extremely helpful in terms of aggregating all of the information I had read so far.

The biggest struggle I had throughout the last few weeks (as well as continuing now through the poster-making process) is my tendency to get lost in reading. When I have been writing a section of my paper or looking up a graphic, statistic, etc. for my poster, I often come across a new article or a new organization and then go down a rabbit hole of reading. I know that it is impossible to know everything about my topic, especially considering that I completed this in such a condensed time frame, so I think that is where my desire to just keep reading comes from. However, something that I've been working on is knowing when to stop reading and start writing. Because I don't want to stop reading entirely, though, I took a 75/25 mindset where 25% of the time I've been working has been reading and 75% has been working on the paper or poster. It's been a bit hard to stick to this some days, but having the framework has been helpful.

Over the course of this week and next week, I am continuing to work on my poster, as well as reaching out to friends and mentors for feedback. One thing I plan on doing is printing out a smaller version of the poster so I can see what it looks like on paper -- I find that when I'm proofreading my own work, I do a much better job catching typos when the work is laid out in paper in front of me rather than on my computer screen where I tend to gloss over errors. These last few days are where I know I will be really out of my comfort zone because I tend to prefer reading and writing papers over making more creative deliverables like a poster. I find my artistic and graphic design skills lacking and often get frustrated. However, I know that this is a good challenge for myself because so often in the research world, a poster is a more effective way of delivering a project than a long, heady paper.