During this semester I had an opportunity to explore Coney Island, and during the process I tried out a few different approaches of research like ethnography, looking at census data, exploring different concepts and trying to see if they apply to the area I’m researching. After trying out all of these methods, I found out which were beneficial for my research and which ones were not.
My biggest accomplishment this semester was figuring out how to manage my time correctly to be able to complete all of my homework. It was hard to achieve in the beginning, but it became easier every week because I had a clear idea of how long it will take me to complete a particular task. I also became a lot better at skimming through the text to find relevant information and leave out unimportant details. That significantly increased my reading speed thus saved me some time on reading.
One aspect that I would like to improve in the future is the way I write my essays. Writing has always been challenging for me, but the more I write and the more “tricks” I learn, the easier it becomes. So in the future, I would like to spend more time on learning how to write my essays better and quicker.
What I thought about systems and strategies is not that different from what I believe now. For me, this class taught me how to break a bigger project into smaller steps, which allowed me not to stress as much and have a clear vision of what I need to do in order to achieve my goal.
