I learned that I enjoy books that are grounded in reality. I knew beforehand I like historical fiction books but going through the list I made of possible texts to include I realized that anything that’s more true to real life and has a hint of, “I could see that happening in real life,” is the most appealing to me.
The Child Thief by Dan Smith made me learn a lot about myself. After I had finished it, I learned the general genre I liked to read, and even more so, it influenced the type of movies and games that I watch and play now, respectively. Additionally, it was the first book that had more graphical depictions of war and its brutal reality of it. I appreciated it didn’t have the watered-down descriptions made for kids, as was the audience of the other books I had read. Honestly, I believe that books centered around war shouldn’t be so “friendly” towards kids. The Scholastic Books are all inherently made for kids and written that way, but events in history were not as watered down as some stories may seem. Especially since kids can choose to read these types of books and aren’t forced.
Originally I had chosen public transportation vs private transportation because it’s one of the more pertinent debates in America since the car culture is so heavy. I felt that compared to other arguments it was tamer and less likely to offend (as I wanted to keep a decently neutral stance). At the start, my original search terms and thesis were too broad. However, having other people view my argument helped shape and narrow my personal beliefs. Whether they disagreed or agreed with it (possibly for other reasons) it helped increase my worldview and my perspective. Additionally, it exposed me to reasoning I hadn’t previously considered. Eventually, I was then able to incorporate these different stances on my position to slowly mold it into something I liked. Also, the research process helped formulate my stance because looking at both the pros and cons of the public transportation debate helped me see the other side of my argument and increased my general knowledge on the top. Additionally, I was able to find some pros and cons that I hadn’t considered before.
Classmate feedback was also important for me in narrowing down my topic. For example, I argued for more public transportation in all US cities but when getting feedback from peers I was reminded that it may not be practical to have it implemented in smaller cities or rural towns. Therefore I changed my stance to include public transportation only in middle to large-sized cities. Overall I think it made my argument better since it was easier to argue since it was a more specific type of locality and it was a compromise between the other opposing position. Therefore it probably would have made the opposing side more willing to listen to my position because it wasn’t such a polarized position as I had originally.