When I first started brainstorming ideas for my original work, I had no idea where to start. In that sense, I would say the beginning was the most difficult part of this process. Simply starting something always seems the hardest for me. Once I get working, then I’m set. My first original work idea, which wasn’t very well-thought out, was to come up with a “speech” similar to one I would present in a trial. This would based around a criminal case, that I would somehow come up with or research. I wasn’t the biggest fan of this idea because it didn’t seem to me like something that would be especially beneficial in the long run if I had no idea what I was doing. I felt that especially since I would be fabricating something that I haven’t completely understood or even read or seen. To make this truly successful, I would want a primary source to help. Speaking of, my mentorship with Mr. Sandel of the Whalen Law Firm was confirmed on November, 29th; Since there is a multitude of paperwork, background checks, and more that have to be dealt with before the first mentor visit could happen, I knew my original work would be due before that time. So I had to come up with another plan.
That’s when an idea came to me. I wanted to build a website, with an interactive game for any willing and curious to learn about a criminal trial. I envisioned there to be two sides for the user to pick from: criminal defense or prosecution. After the user picked which they wanted to be, they could choose a specific case out of several options, and follow the steps of a trial, while making their own decisions on how they think would be best to defend their client or prosecute the defendant. Besides the game portion of the website, I wanted to include more facts about the crime rates around us, and what that means for society. However, I knew this would require an extensive amount of research, so I set my mind on this being a potential final product. Once that was all figured out, I decided I would have my original work be a huge research paper with the goal purpose to set me up for my future endeavors, including the website. Also, it can never hurt to learn a little more about where we live, using reliable data that I otherwise would not have had the time to look at.
Throughout the process of researching, I found countless resources that were incredible and extremely valuable. However, I also learned a lot about myself. Since this was a completely independent project and one of the biggest research tasks I have ever undertaken, I was able to discover my own path and follow leads that interested me; ones that I otherwise wouldn’t have found or followed in a typical core class subject. My original work really pushed me to hone in on my critical researching skills by sorting through which data is important and which data isn’t, navigating the search engines, verifying credibility of sources, and most of all analyzing what I was finding and condensing it into something of my own analysis. This type of research skills are critical for most careers, and life, but especially the field I am studying. The process did also showcase my own weaknesses. I have a habit of starting to look into one thing, and then jumping immediately into another thing, and just hopping around from topic to topic like a scatterbrain. Going forward, I feel I will be more effective if I focus on one pathway at a time. If I begin doing that, I will have way less stress on my hands when I have “kind-of” started everything and am feeling stalled where to go next.
The part of the research that truly utilized higher thinking skills was the analysis portions. My main goal was to not only learn more of the facts, (crime statistics, courtroom data, etc.) but to also figure out what this really means. I was looking at a lot of numbers, especially with the Annual Statistical Report from the Texas Judicial Branch and the Crime Analysis of 2016 from the DPS. I spent most of my time trying to break down the possible reasons why these trends could be happening, but first I had to actually identify the trends themselves, which was a hearty task in its own right. With one good glance through the paper, it is pretty obvious there was an elaborate and thorough understanding of the field. I am certain that the knowledge I gained will aid in me in my future endeavors and especially with my final product.