Term 1 Extra Credit---Elsa

The assignment I used a growth mindset in was the research blog post on our presidents. Coming out of U.S. History and writing the junior thesis, I kept in mind the problems I had when researching and writing my thesis as well as the feedback I received about it. Ultimately, my growth mindset was to use the knowledge I gained from writing that paper and apply it to this blog post. One thing I learned when writing my junior thesis was that it is easier to write a thesis after gathering evidence. The way the junior thesis was set up, we had to turn in our thesis before we had completed our research. When I wrote the blog post, I solidified my idea after my research had been completed. I think this made for a stronger, more provable paper. I think junior thesis also taught me to be a better researcher by allowing me to figure out what types of sources are best. For my blog post, I mostly used concrete primary source evidence such as speeches and an election ad. Overall, by doing my blog post, I used the feedback I had gotten from my junior thesis to grow to be a better historical writer and researcher.

            I did not receive feedback while working on the project, however the comment from a peer that I got after I had posted my project really showed her understanding of my post. I thought the fact that she understood my point and the evidence presented showed the success of my post. The growth mindset I used while completing this project really helped the final product to be as successful as it was in clarity, quality of research and argument. I have learned from this experience how to apply past feedback to make future research papers even more successful.