Critical Reflective Essay

Whitney Walters

Dr. Halverson

English 102

17 May 2013

Critical Reflective Essay

            Writing my research paper was quite a journey filled with many writer’s blocks, long frustrated nights, and even a few desperate cries of confusion. When my professor said we should be thinking about our topic for a research question, I knew that I wanted to do women in mental institutions, but that was about all I knew.  Before I knew it, I was all over the place, researching women in insane asylums and how they have evolved, to the different kinds of treatment one can receive in an asylum, along with the rise of female journalists.  I first took the route of the female journalists and researched two women that went undercover in mental institutions, one in the 19^th century and one in the 21^st century. For this part of our research, my professor didn’t require us to use scholarly sources because we were just dipping our feet in the water of searching for sources.  I soon realized that this wasn’t going to work, the time gap was such a difference and the more modern story had very little written about it. I was fascinated by the female journalist from the 19^th century named Nellie Bly and her story really helped not only my research question, but also my final draft of my research paper. From her story, I decided to narrow down my research question to the rise of the Victorian madwoman and their roles in the insane asylums during the 19^th century.

            With my research question somewhat figured out, it was time crack down and start researching. My professor showed us how to navigate our campus’s library website to use databases to search for scholarly sources.  At first I did many searches that only involved insane asylums and women, but the results didn’t have the time period I needed. I became very discouraged that this research topic just wasn’t going to work, until my professor recommended Elaine Showalter’s book that became the forerunner for my paper.  The book looked into Victorian woman and madness and from that I searched the databases for the oppression of Victorian madwoman and the hysteria that surrounded them. I had to order many articles and books, some were mediocre and not relatable to my research question, but others were wonderful and helped me really shape my question and they gave me more keywords to search for in databases.  I started reading my secondary research articles and books and took thorough notes so I could reference them later for my paper. We then found out in class that we would need to do some primary research that could include surveys, interviews, or cultural analysis. I first wanted to visit a mental institution near my town and ask some questions, but I decided against it because they might not know anything about how Victorian women in insane asylums were treated. I then decided to use Nellie Bly’s book called Ten Days in a Mad-House for my primary research, reading and taking notes on it.

            With most of my research done, I wrote very rough drafts that I knew would need a lot of work. My peer’s main concern with my paper was my organization and lengthy paragraphs. They enjoyed the beginning where I talked about the reasons why Victorian women were sent to asylums, but they felt that I just pegged Nellie Bly’s story at the end and could include it more in the previous paragraphs. My professor felt the same way and recommended that I break my paragraphs up because they were too lengthy and dragged on. I took another go at my paper and wrote a second draft that I felt pretty good about. My professor said it was an excellent draft, but I relied on my Elaine Showalter source too much and needed to add more about female oppression during the 19^th century. Taking her comments into consideration, I ordered the books that she suggested and found some new articles that could help make my paper better. I also added more accounts of stories to demonstrate the reasons women were sent to asylums. My professor really liked the way I edited Nellie Bly’s story, but recommended that I quote more from it and try to find another source about her. I went through her story again and made sure to use more in-text citations along with quoting to help improve that portion of my paper.

            I feel that my journey has really helped me improve as a writer, especially when it comes to scholarly writing. In high school, we had to write research papers, but we could use Google or Wikipedia as sources. This course has taught me how to search for scholarly sources and how to properly cite them when using their information in my paper. I felt that a lot of research has been done on the oppression of women and on insane asylums during the 19^th century, but not many discussions have tied them together and researched them both. I feel that my paper does just that, talking about the insane asylums and their treatment, along with the role that Victorian women had in society and the reasons they were sent to these asylums.  I also feel that I no scholarly discourse has involved Nellie Bly into the mix, but my paper includes her story along with how it speaks to the oppression of women. I think my paper and blog as a whole has really brought the two ideas I mentioned above into one cohesive research question that I wrote my paper on.