Portfolio

Section One

Cover letter

I began this process with a topic that I found both original and very interesting. I left this process with a deep understand of my topic and a greater appreciation and understanding of the research process in itself. I first started this process with a long list of topics that interested me. Narrowing it down to one became easier and easier with the topic of originality being something I wanted for my research. I wanted to find something out that no one had ever researched before. The topic of love at first sight was, as I found in my preliminary research, one that was not covered often but in particular it was not covered on a social level, but rather a scientific, psychological level.

I decided to explore love at first sight and the different impact that is has on heterosexual and homosexual individuals. I researched many studies on love at first sight but there was no information even close to a topic like mine. This is when I came up with my methodology and decided that conducting a focus group to learn more about the topic. Although my focus group was small we did come to a few conclusions.

This process helped me to learn the process of writing a research paper and the different portions that go into it. My introduction was one of the easiest parts of my paper because at that point I was excited and enthusiastic to do my research and find some results. The hardest part for me came second and this was the literature review. This part did not interest me because there was so much reading and none of it really had to do with my topic. I found a lot of research on love at first sight and on homosexual and heterosexual relationships but none that combined the two. So I had to break it up which was disappointing. My methodology actually changed throughout my process from a polling method to a focus group so that was a process to change. Finally my results/discussion/conclusion section was very easy for me to write because I had come to find new evidence in the topic and was excited to share it. I also put in my limitations section the things that I would recommend for further research in this topic.

I selected one of my first peer editing drafts (pages 16-31) as my draft because it was done by a classmate that I really respect and I was definitely a big improvement to my paper when I made the corrections and used the suggestions that she gave me. It was extremely difficult for me to keep focused and to actually want to write the paper because it was such an emotional and drawn out process. This draft gave me the motivation to keep going because my peer editor pushed me and really wanted to know more about my topic. I knew that my paper needed major revisions and even some more sources after that draft was produced and I over the process of a few days made them.

My final draft is one that I consider to be one of the best pieces of writing that I have ever done. This was heavily impacted by Anne LaMott’s document entitled “Shitty First Drafts.” This piece helped me see that there are always improvements to be made and writing is a growing process. In pages 11–14 of my final paper I feel as though I stay on topic very well and I am able to bring connections from my original hypothesis to the focus group discussion that I conducted. In my literature review on pages 3-6 I made very good connections between the research that I found in journals and other sources and my own research and hypotheses. After this process my ability to write a works cited page will never be the same. It was hard to do but making sure all citations were correct and formatted well was hard but worth I and I see this as a useful skill that I can carry with me.

As I stated earlier I changed in the process of writing this paper. I feel as though I grew not only as a writer but also as a person. This process took my writing to a level that I have never accomplished before and I am really appreciative to have had this experience to grow.

Section Two

Section Three

http://melindaborgnis.wordpress.com/po/ this is my proposal and outline for my final paper

http://melindaborgnis.wordpress.com/first-draft/ this was the first draft of my paper.

http://melindaborgnis.wordpress.com/final-final-final-paper/ This is my final paper.

Section Four

All of my peer reviews are in hard copy but the following is an entry i posted on how much they helped me. http://melindaborgnis.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/blog-entry-15/

Section Five

http://melindaborgnis.wordpress.com/letters/ these are my midterm and final refective letters.

This is the journal i submitted my piece to and the message i sent… my final copy was attached.

http://www.iarr.org/publications/pr.html

Dr.Campbell, I recently conducted a study on love at first sight and the different effects that it can have on homosexual and heterosexual individuals. I feel as though this study would be an important piece of work for the Personal Relationship Journal because to my knowledge a study of this nature has never been conducted before on this topic. I hope you will consider my submission for you journal. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Melinda J. Borgnis

Section Six

http://melindaborgnis.wordpress.com/annotated-bibliography/

the following is my presentation handout

Love at First Sight:

A Study of the Differences between Homosexual and Heterosexual Relationships

Melinda Borgnis

Please visit melindaborgnis.wordpress.com for a full list of research obtained and the full paper on this topic.

Abstract

Valuable sources

Barelds, Dick. “Love at first sight or friends first? Ties among partner personality trait

similarity, relationship onset, relationship quality, and love.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 24.4 (2007): 479-496. Web. 27 Feb 2010. <http://spr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/24/4/479>.

This study described how love at first sight is believed to work and the impact that it has on those who experience it. It also discussed the personality similarities between individuals who are in relationships and links this to love at first sight.

Bos, Henry, Theo Sandfort, Eddy de Bruyn, and Esther Hakvoort. “Same-Sex Attraction,

Social Relationships, Psychosocial Functioning, and.” Developmental Psychology 44.1 (2008): 59-68. Web. 27 Feb 2010. <http://dare.uva.nl/document/114179>.

This study was extensive on homosexuality and how it effects the relationships that are produced. This was used in the part of my paper where I was discussing the differences between heterosexual and homosexual relationships.

Gorgan, Elena. “Love at First Sight Means 8.2 Seconds of Eye Contact.” Life and Style

25 Mar 2009: n. pag. Web. 05 Mar 2010. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Love-at-First-Sight-Means-8-2-Seconds-of-Eye-Contact-107667.shtml

This study was one that I used in many sections of my paper. This was a study done with male college students and a female model that the men decided if they were attracted to her. Some men were because she was beautiful but some were not. This study showed the length of time that love at first sight takes, 8.2 seconds, and if there is mental evidence for it.

Valid Conclusions

“Love at first sight can exist if that person looks like someone you used to be in love with” Female heterosexual participant.“I believe in love at first sight” Male Homosexual participant.” I feel like maybe after getting to know someone for maybe like five minutes or so then you could know that you love a person, but instantaneously, no I don’t think that’s possible.” Male Heterosexual participant.“Can you really put people into categories like that, its not that clean cut, its not just two separate categories, I like both and im sure that’s common.” Female Bisexual participant.

Love at first sight, though not widely believed in, is a possible reality that many would like happen to them. This study encompasses all aspects of love at first sight in heterosexual and homosexual individuals. The initial question of this study was in what ways does love at first sight, if it does exist, differ for heterosexual as opposed to homosexual individuals. I explored in a small focus group of eight individuals the opinions of many different sexualities on love at first sight. This study was conducted on campus at Indiana University of Pennsylvania with students age 19-22. Through my research I found that most individuals do not believe that love at first sight exists but love at a first encounter or a first date is possible. I also concluded that homosexual individuals feels as though heterosexual individuals are more apt to feel love at first sight due to the fact that they base their opinions on more of outside appearance.

DTXP@iup.edu

Like this:

Be the first to like this page.

Melindaborgnis’s Weblog

Portfolio

Like this:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Pages

Archives

Categories

Search

Meta

Follow “Melindaborgnis's Weblog”