Reflective Writing Assignment: Generational Problems and Evolution

This reflective essay, submitted by a student, explores the evolution of their research project process, focusing on the problems young people face today compared to older generations. The essay begins with an introduction to the topic, mentioning the impact of modern technologies on youth lifestyles and the common misconceptions associated with these changes. The body of the essay details the student's research process, including the challenges of comparing generational issues, the use of personal experiences and discussions with elders, and the strategic structure employed. The student discusses the selection and analysis of various sources, including articles from Google Scholar and other online resources, highlighting the importance of critical evaluation and the use of an annotated bibliography format. The essay also addresses the student's strategies, evaluations, and source selections, emphasizing the evolution of their understanding and the refinement of their arguments through revision and analysis. The conclusion reflects on the learning experience, the skills acquired, and the student's satisfaction with the project's outcome, expressing a preference for the annotated bibliography format for future projects. The essay offers a detailed comparison between generational challenges and provides a valuable insight into the student's research journey.

Running head: REFLECTIVE WRITING
REFLECTIVE WRITING
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1REFLECTIVE WRITING
Assignment 16: Reflective Outline
Paper Topic: The problems young people today face compared to older
generations.
1. Introduction
a. Introduce the topic noted above.
b. Briefly mention how with the coming of modern technologies, the lifestyle of the
youth has changed over a period of time.
c. Mention the misconception commonly associated with this change.
2. Body
a. Evolution of the Project
i. As a student, it was easier for me to recognize the problems faced by today’s
youth. The main challenge was to compare them with those of the older
generations.
ii. My intention was to recollect the experiences that I have gathered as a teenager,
and put them to use.
iii. I got immense help from elders both within as well as outside my family, all of
acknowledged the differences and helped me to form a critical judgment of both.
iv. Then formed a strategic structure that I would follow.
v. Wrote the first draft.
vi. Realized that my opinion was being largely shaped by secondary sources, instead
of being more of my own opinions.

2REFLECTIVE WRITING
vii. Asked elders about the major problems they had faced as teenagers. Then
compared them with my own.
viii. Revised the draft using more analysis from my personal life.
b. Analysis and Evaluation of Strategies
i. Had full faith my overall strategy, although I had to make some changes later on.
ii. Hovered around some quality articles to understand the problems beyond my
personal experience, rather have a generalized idea of the complexities faced by
the people of both the generations.
iii. But before that I checked the authenticity of the articles so as to not be misguided
into forming false opinions.
iv. Narrowed down on six particular articles which I thought would be helpful in the
formation and presentation of the problems pertaining to generational gaps.
v. Studied the very carefully.
vi. The vast repository of knowledge which I gathered through this extensive study
faced me with a little problem in the initial phases to form the outline of the
article.
vii. The structure of ‘Annotated Bibliography’ came to my rescue. It helped me to
focus on the major points within each paper, and address them from a critical
perspective, at the same time, linking them with my own opinions about the same.
viii. However, I was still deviated from the main topic, sometimes putting more of
my own opinions than could be included in context of the article under
examination. It was with much effort that I achieved a perfect balance of both.
ix. Once I got over this problem, the movement through the paper became easier.
x. By the end, the structure and content appeared to be balanced and rational.
c. Review Source Selection

3REFLECTIVE WRITING
i. I took my initial ideas by generally surfing through the internet.
ii. But then I saw that I needed to form a more critical idea about the topic. Certain
articles from the Google Scholar were helpful.
iii. While narrowing down on six particular articles, I had to reluctantly omit a few.
This is because, although they were valuable in shaping my opinions, the ideas
they predominantly presented were similar.
iv. The article “How Teens Today Are Different From Past Generations” by
Greatergood.berkeley.edu helped me to initiate the project, by exploring how
society and political events shape the formation of today’s youth, with special
emphasis on the role of social media.
v. The point raised by Sharlene Gale and Graeme Codington in the article “Facing
the Youth in the 21st Century” about the causal relationship of obesity with the
mental and physical health of today’s youth, offered a fresh perspective to me,
which I had never thought about before. To quote my own writing, “obesity
disrupts the mental equilibrium of the young generation that the people of the
previous generation did not have to face” best describes my learning of this new
perspective. It also highlights how today’s youth has become highly
overconfident.
vi. The articles “How Millennials today compare with their grandparents 50 years
ago” by authors Richard, Fry, Ruth Igielnik and Eileen Patten and “Madhuka
published in Test big site in the year December 2013” helped me to focus on the
problems of unemployment faced by today’s educated and skilled youth.
vii. The author Derek Thompson through his article “Are Today's Youth Really a Lost
Generation?” helped me to make a clear distinction between the youths of the past
and present generations. Differences pertaining to generational gap were also

4REFLECTIVE WRITING
explored and put to use from the article “Problems faced by the youth today. The
youth of today has been widely outclassed” by the author Carroll Jennie.
viii. All these sources were really helpful as they provided a perfect mixture of
history, the current state of affairs, the possible future challenges, all pertaining to
the research topic.
3. Conclusion
a. I am pretty much pleased how the research paper has taken shape.
b. It was a very endearing learning experience for me, where I got to know a lot
more about issues pertaining to my own life.
c. I have also acquired certain skills by the execution of various processes.
d. As mentioned earlier, I really liked the format of annotated bibliography, and
would like to do more future projects on a similar format.
e. I would have liked to add more additional sources. Nevertheless, I am quite happy
about how the project has turned out.