Cover Letter
To whom it may concern,
Research writing was something that I did not think I would be able to accomplish. Before beginning our research papers, finding a topic was very hard for me to decide on because I did not know what I wanted to talk about. After two weeks of thinking, I figured out what my topic was going to be about: “sibling relationships”. From what I found, sibling relationships are mostly short-term research instead of long-term research; research showed that their subjects followed in their siblings’ footsteps instead of finding their own paths.
Expanding the research on “sibling relationships” was hard because I had to use my own personal experience in my writing. The research that I did find helped in the long-run because I was able to relate it to my writing, while using my auto-ethnography. It allowed me to fully understand how important sibling relationships can be while building a bond with an important member of your family.
This paper became a significant part of my learning experience not just in my personal life, but in this class because it allowed me to come to terms with the effects of when a sibling partakes in deviant behaviors. This research paper also allowed me to become aware of the fact that I have accomplished more than what certain family members believed I could. In my opinion, a research paper not only helps you learn more about yourself, but also allows you to expand your knowledge on certain topics that may be found to be incomplete. This experience happened to me while researching my question about my research paper, “Why am I not like my brother considering that we have a close bond?” This research answered that question for me. Regardless of how close siblings can be, there’s still a choice that can be made in whether you want to be their follower or their leader. We all have a choice!
The most difficult part of my research paper was where I had to accept my peers’ feedback while reading my auto-ethnography, because it’s about my life, my own personal experience that many may not have went through. But when I received my research paper back, I realized that what I had thought would occur did not. For example, my second peer editing partner, Andrea Chandler, stated, “Your paper showed your strength. Also how you became the person you are. It also demonstrated through sources how much you overcome” (p. 2). That actually made me feel really good about my paper because at first I was not sure if my paper was even correct. But, the positive feedback that I received actually gave me that boost of confidence that I needed to finish my paper on time.
Throughout my whole experience with the final paper, I discovered that I’m very good at citations within my paper. Also, another one of my best abilities would be using sources to compare or back up my own experience, which you can see throughout my final essay. My best example of this would be on page 9:
“When my brother left, the people that he had chosen to hang around
were ones who participated in the same deviant acts as him. For the
longest time I once believed that he no longer had loyalty towards
us, and he was forgetting about me. “Tend to close themselves off
from other groups, only communicating with others like themselves”
(Quensel & McArdle, 2002 p.15).
In this particular portion, the information that I used not only helped me realized why he was closing himself off from me, but allowed me to understand what was going on at that time. Throughout this research paper, I used APA format mainly because I am familiar with it. Also, I have used this format for all my papers throughout college, and because I had a lot of knowledge on this format, I felt it would be the best fit for my paper.
