Restructuring My Paper

After giving my presentation, I felt like something needed to be changed in my research paper. The way I gave my presentation was the way I planned on structuring my paper. I planned on writing chronologically about the events in my mom's life where she's shown she was strong. However, while giving the presentation, I felt like I was being way too repetitive. I was always saying, "that was a time when she definitely showed she was a strong person" and it just felt awkward saying that over and over again. This caused me to start thinking about how I could possibly change things to make them go a bit better and maybe flow smoother. I came up with changing my thesis to something along the lines of "My mother is my role model because of the many positive traits that she possesses and has passed on to me." or "My mother is my role model because I see so many positive attributes that she possesses in myself." I'm thinking about dividing my paper up into different positive traits that my mother possesses and maybe explaining what that trait is. I then planned on describing the events in her life in which she has demonstrated that positive trait through her actions. Then I wanted to connect it all back by writing about the times in my life where I've demonstrated that same character trait. I feel this will nicely show why I admire my mother and then how I've tried to model my life after hers.

Thesis Troubles

I've never been really good at coming up with a thesis. Honestly, I've never been taught how to write one or choose one. I used to be told that it was pretty much just your topic sentence, but I'm beginning to realize that a lot more thought has to be put into a thesis than that. Therefore, I am panicking about the thesis deadline, which is quickly approaching. I thought I was going to be writing about how my mother is one of my role models, so would I start my paper out with simply stating that my mother is my most influential role model? It seems that for a thesis there has to be much more than that so I don't know what I am supposed to do. For the paper, my plan was to have an introduction that stated that my mother was my role model, and briefly almost list the reasons why. I was then going to continue on with the paper with a few paragraphs dedicated to each of the reasons I find my mom to be a role model, and explain the qualities that I see in her that I wish to model myself after. Of course my research would be incorporated into those paragraphs. So that was all I really thought we had to do, so can anyone help me with a potential thesis?

I am finding it to be quite difficult to find scholarly sources to include in my research paper. Every time I try to search through the Saint Rose's online library catalog for various things, it usually tells me that the search resulted in no hits. This is getting to be depressing because I have no idea where to find these scholarly sources if not through this website. I can easily find the information I need by typing it into Google, but then I have to sort through the sites to see if there are any that would be reliable sources of information. For example, when I typed in the name of the cancer my mom had, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a bunch of websites popped up. However, I only found one that I believe I can really use, which was cancer.gov, which is a website run by the National Cancer Institute. Would this count as one of the necessary scholarly sources, or just another source? I did find one medical journal on her cancer, which was very helpful. I have also found something using JSTOR on teenage pregnancy. I am finding it very difficult to find the statistics, though, that I wanted to include, like how many teenage mothers who dropped out of high school go back to receive their GED. I'm only finding general information, like "girls who become pregnant are far more likely to drop out than those who don't." This is annoying me, because that doesn't really sound like research. I also had another question concerning this project. I didn't know whether I should research some stuff about role models in general, and try to incorporate that into my research paper. Overall, I am looking forward to writing this paper, because I feel it is an excellent way to show my mother just how much she means to me, and how much I look up to her. However, I will admit that the research aspect is becoming far more difficult than I originally expected.

Possible Things to Research

Since I chose to do my research project on a person that isn't famous or well-known, I'm faced with many challenges on how to incorporate academic research into my project.. I was thinking about researching how probable it is for someone who became pregnant at 16 to keep the baby. I also planned to incorporate the odds of someone dropping out of high school to go back and get their GED, like my mother did. She has worked her way up from being just a file clerk at an insurance company, to the "Supervising Claims Adjuster" where she presently works. I also wished to research the form of cancer my mother had, particularly the statistics of surviving the cancer. I figured showing all of these odds and statistics would help show how incredibly strong and determined my mother is, which is why I wish to model my life after hers. Additionally, I was thinking about researching the typical mother/daughter relationship and comparing the "typical" to the specific relationship my mother and I share. Any other ideas as to how I could incorporate more scholarly and academic research into this?

My Role Model

So far I've chosen my role model, which is my mom. I chose to write about my mom because she, mentally, is the strongest person I know. She's gone through so much rough stuff in her life, and she's gone about it all in a great way. She grew up with 6 brothers and sisters, poor, and in a broken family. She had a baby at 17 with my father, and is still with him 30 years later. She was also diagnosed in 2006 with a rare form of cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma. She beat the cancer and just recently was diagnosed with lupus. She faced each of these challenges with her head held high. She kept an amazing attitude through it all, which is something I don't think I would ever be able to do. This is why I view her as my role model, because I'd love to be as strong and determined as she is. For my paper, I planned on giving descriptions of these events in her life, and emphasizing the actions that she took that I admire. I believe this will show her tremendous strength well.