Auto-Ethnography Project: A Deep Dive into My Writing Process

Assignment Details

For my auto-ethnography project I decided to use my European and Modern World History research paper.
This assignment is supposed to allow students the opportunity to develop their historical writing skills.
We were given a list of topics to choose a prompt based on one of the essay prompts provided.
Then, we were assigned to conduct some further research to find a specific narrow focus to discuss. This allows researchers to develop a focused paper with strong supportive points and evidence.
DUE DATE: DECEMBER 5

Selecting a topic to research was the first part of the planning process that I tasked myself with.
When choosing a topic, I first read through the list that contained about the 40 topics we have studied throughout the course.
The Paris Protests of 1968 sparked my intellectual curiosity because I had never learned about the topic in school
Then, I had to narrow my topic down. This is where I faced some struggles because I had to do multiple extensive layers of research to narrow down my topic.
I conferenced briefly with my professor before class one morning, and she kept pushing me to go narrower.

Paris Protests '68 (New York Times)

This was the first challenge I met during the process of this project.
I consulted with my professor multiple times
My original question: " What specific factors and events led to the French Protests in 1968, and to what extent did the events influence political and societal changes in France?" was not specific enough.
I changed my question to "To what extent did the Algerian National Liberation Front’s struggle for independence from 1954 to 1962 influence the broader context of decolonization and the French Protest events of 1968?", which was better, but my teacher ended up recommending that I used this question to prompt my research "In what ways did the wars for decolonization influence the French student protests in 1968?", so I ended up formulating a question that incorprated both of our ideas.
My research question was: "In what ways did the Third World anti-imperialism movement, decolonization, and de Gaulle's regime impact the May 1968 Protests in France?"

Chat GPT

When I was struggling with creating a question to prompt my research and argument, I decided to lean into ChatGPT for ideas. I was trying to find connections to relevant themes during the 1968 Protests.
ChatGPT and other AI platforms can often be useful tools for the early stages of researching and brainstorming. However, I do not think that I gleaned much advice from using AI since the topic was so niche and specific to this course.

To the right is my annotated bibliography, which includes 5 scholarly secondary sources.
The expectation for finding five scholarly sources was at a typical college level, each source had to be from a scholarly University Press I utilized the ZSR's library resources to help aid my research process.

Today I met with Dr. Rahal to help me formulate my thesis statement and further understand what I was arguing.
She helped me break down the French May Protests of 1968 and understand the broader context of the 1968 "global disruption".

Since this was a hefty 7-page writing assignment, I decided to chunk out the sections of my paper to make the work more manageable.
My first writing session was solely focused on my introduction paragraph and thesis statement. This seemed the most important, so I dedicated a lot of time and effort to crafting my introduction. I started my first sentence with a hook to capture the reader's attention. The majority of my introduction paragraph was the historical context of the situation. Toward the end, I incorporated my thesis statement.
Each body paragraph had an opening transition sentence, body topic, and closing transition sentence.
My conclusion was outlined well and pretty straightforward
Planning, writing, and revising were my main three steps during the process

Since my paper was so thoroughly outlined, the writing process was not too difficult to execute. Since I was writing for history, I made sure to pay special attention to incorporating my textual evidence properly with the correct citation styles. I had written history-based research papers of this length in the past, so I felt like I had the hang of it.

Unique steps in my writing process:

I talk to myself aloud about my thoughts
I have to work in a quiet environment
I try not to look at the screen and just let my fingers type on the keyboard
I often switch back and forth between sources (can be a little disorganized at times)
I always had a snack and a good playlist!

This auto-ethnography assignment allowed me to pay close attention to how I write a paper, and I have realized that I write quite differently than what I thought at the beginning of the semester. The actual process I went through for writing this paper was different from the process of writing I described in my personal narrative. Over the course of the semester, I have noticed an evolution in my writing process, as I have written, I create my own feedback for myself as I go to "prevent the fear of red ink from being splattered on the page."

Although this writing assignment was history-focused, this empirically research-based study of my process differs from my personal narrative paper from the beginning of the semester because I used a meticulously organized approach to my writing. During this assignment, my planning, writing, and revising steps were carved out throughout the process. However, when I wrote the personal narrative essay, I took on a more creative approach, allowing myself to bounce off of ideas and stray away from a rigid outline. Unfortunately, there is not much room for creativity in historical research papers because the learning outcome is meant to be geared towards developing your critical thinking and analytical skills. I think that if I were to take the approach I talked about in my personal narrative for this specific assignment, I would feel misconstrued. This auto-ethnography reveals that there is no one specific formula to teach writing; rather in the words of Donald Murray, writing is a process, not a product.
What I learned about myself...
- I am proactive in seeking assistance when faced with challenging and dense writing assignments. I take advantage of the resources I have access to such as meeting outside of class with my professor or seeing a writing center tutor.
- I create a disciplined and organized routine to ensure efficiency and cultivate strong time management skills in my writing endeavors.

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