The New Voice Within
Everyone has different views and styles of writing. Different people share their tone through different ways. This semester in English 102 we looked at various authors and learned more about tone and voice through their essays and writings. Even though through high school I learned to write well written essays, I have come to really understand the important aspects that Bialostosky taught. When it was finally our time to put our new skills to the test I felt confident. Over these past few weeks I have learned to be myself within my writing and let my own voice come through. Within my research paper I hope to have made my own personal voice!
As a child growing up I loved to dress up and feel glamorous. So, because of this I was interested in the children of this generation who dress up also. I decided to do my research on the psychological effects of child beauty pageants on its contestants. It interested me to learn more about and gain insight on children who grow up in a more competitive strive of being called ‘most beautiful’. I also am very interested in the TLC TV shows Toddlers and Tiaras and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo where they portray the flamboyant side of child beauty pageants. These reality TV shows really make you connected and interested in the beauty pageants because of the dramatic yet elegant style that it captures. I was further interested in the psychological aspect of these children because I hope to add a certificate of child and adolescent studies to my major. Since I am someone who really enjoys children I felt like this topic would be interesting and fun for me to learn about. I also feel like this topic can affect many other people whether in pageants or not. Having the insight of what can happen psychologically to the contestants can help society understand the importance of keeping innocence throughout childhood.
As I was deciding on my specific question I wanted to answer, it was pretty hard because there is so many possibilities. I knew though that I wanted to keep my topic of child beauty pageants. I felt like our culture idolizes people who are beautiful. I decided to study the effects that the cost of beauty places on these children in the pageants. The psychological effects that can hurt or help these children mentally and physically was an important aspect to research in order to share the facts with others. My findings were surprising and I came to understand the opposite side of the argument that I didn't have faith in before my research. My bias attitude toward child beauty pageants had me believing that they were totally bad for the children. I view pageants as a way to sexualize children and force them into harmful and hurtful attempts at making them look like little Barbies, which can later cause self-esteem issues. When I did my research I came to realize the many positive psychological effects that these pageants also contribute to the participants. I learned of the joy that some of the contestants receive from participating in pageants. The good self-esteem, confidence, and friendships that are gained showed me some great benefits of these pageants. I can now say that my views of these pageants can swing both ways depending on the severity of the topic on hand.
At the beginning, I focused mainly on using all academic resources, such as those from Wonderlich and another from Adler. These resources were reliable and had good facts and statistics within them. As my research went on I found it increasingly more difficult to find the type of information I was searching for in scholarly sources. A lot of these sources were either old or not recent to today’s culture or they didn't cover the material I necessarily needed to answer my controlling question. So, I turned my research to more testimonies of children that partook in pageants. These stories were very beneficial to my research because they told of the personal heartache and love for these pageants. Some articles with the stories I used included "Princess by Proxy: Explaining Extreme Pageant Moms" and "Beauty Pageants Saved My Life”. Other places that I found some interesting sources was articles from the Huffington Post. These articles were written about the benefits and negative aspects of the pageants and gave examples and stories that I used within my research. Even though some of my sources may not be academic, one has to consider them for the best information that was provided for my topic.
As my research journey continued I thought about the way that I would present the information that I have come to accumulate. Through my process of learning more about the positive and negative aspects of beauty pageants I realize how important the visual aspect within pageants are. With this I decided to make an online website that provides pictures, videos, and text that can enhance the research I have done. Having all the information online is also a fun way of sharing my research with the public. When looking and reading the website I find it more fun and engaging than just reading a hard copy research paper. With added pictures and videos one can fully understand the topics being presented and how they apply to psychological changes within the children. I am glad that I chose this method and hope others appreciate it also.
As my work progressed I changed and revised my paper. Revising it was an important part of the steps towards academic and well written research. During the whole process of writing I kept the format on a Word document. This helped tremendously so that I was able to make easy corrections and have others physically write on my paper so I could see the changes that needed to be made. Once all the revisions were made I transferred the text from the Word document onto the website into the correct format. I felt like this was a good decision because it made the process easier for me and others who helped with the revision.
Within my editing I had a clear idea on the things that would probably needed to be improved in order to make my research the best that it could be. Such things as creating a more sound background for my sources helped create trustful and valid information that the readers could take as truthful. This was a very important part of the course goals and vital to the content of the research itself. Taking these sources and comparing them with each other was also an important step towards my revision process. Doing this gave the reader the different views on the beauty pageants and let the reader think deeply about how they side with the issue. All of these revisions helped bring my research into a more academic style and gave it the extra support that it needed.
As I wrapped up my revisions there was one final thing that needed to be done. I took all my research that was placed on the Word document and transferred it to my website that I had made. I took each category of my research and made it into corresponding pages within the website. Each of these pages contained pictures that helped strengthen the topic being discussed. I felt that the visual aspect of the pictures helped tie up all the questions and loose ends that could possibly occur from trying to imagine the appearance of the contestants. Throughout creating this website I encountered some problems with the formatting. For example it would not let me indent paragraphs and the spacing within pages such as 'References' was different than an academic style. After considering these formatting issues I decided that it would not effect the project in its entirety.
Having the opportunity to research, prepare, and write on a topic that I am passionate about was a great experience. This class prepared me to be able to add academic and personal writing to form an approved style. Through the process of revisions I furthered my understanding on how to write a research paper correctly. Even revising and viewing other student’s papers was an experience that helped me identify and point out corrections that I would possibly miss in my own paper. This project will be one that will be beneficial to my college career in almost any of my future classes.
As a child growing up I loved to dress up and feel glamorous. So, because of this I was interested in the children of this generation who dress up also. I decided to do my research on the psychological effects of child beauty pageants on its contestants. It interested me to learn more about and gain insight on children who grow up in a more competitive strive of being called ‘most beautiful’. I also am very interested in the TLC TV shows Toddlers and Tiaras and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo where they portray the flamboyant side of child beauty pageants. These reality TV shows really make you connected and interested in the beauty pageants because of the dramatic yet elegant style that it captures. I was further interested in the psychological aspect of these children because I hope to add a certificate of child and adolescent studies to my major. Since I am someone who really enjoys children I felt like this topic would be interesting and fun for me to learn about. I also feel like this topic can affect many other people whether in pageants or not. Having the insight of what can happen psychologically to the contestants can help society understand the importance of keeping innocence throughout childhood.
As I was deciding on my specific question I wanted to answer, it was pretty hard because there is so many possibilities. I knew though that I wanted to keep my topic of child beauty pageants. I felt like our culture idolizes people who are beautiful. I decided to study the effects that the cost of beauty places on these children in the pageants. The psychological effects that can hurt or help these children mentally and physically was an important aspect to research in order to share the facts with others. My findings were surprising and I came to understand the opposite side of the argument that I didn't have faith in before my research. My bias attitude toward child beauty pageants had me believing that they were totally bad for the children. I view pageants as a way to sexualize children and force them into harmful and hurtful attempts at making them look like little Barbies, which can later cause self-esteem issues. When I did my research I came to realize the many positive psychological effects that these pageants also contribute to the participants. I learned of the joy that some of the contestants receive from participating in pageants. The good self-esteem, confidence, and friendships that are gained showed me some great benefits of these pageants. I can now say that my views of these pageants can swing both ways depending on the severity of the topic on hand.
At the beginning, I focused mainly on using all academic resources, such as those from Wonderlich and another from Adler. These resources were reliable and had good facts and statistics within them. As my research went on I found it increasingly more difficult to find the type of information I was searching for in scholarly sources. A lot of these sources were either old or not recent to today’s culture or they didn't cover the material I necessarily needed to answer my controlling question. So, I turned my research to more testimonies of children that partook in pageants. These stories were very beneficial to my research because they told of the personal heartache and love for these pageants. Some articles with the stories I used included "Princess by Proxy: Explaining Extreme Pageant Moms" and "Beauty Pageants Saved My Life”. Other places that I found some interesting sources was articles from the Huffington Post. These articles were written about the benefits and negative aspects of the pageants and gave examples and stories that I used within my research. Even though some of my sources may not be academic, one has to consider them for the best information that was provided for my topic.
As my research journey continued I thought about the way that I would present the information that I have come to accumulate. Through my process of learning more about the positive and negative aspects of beauty pageants I realize how important the visual aspect within pageants are. With this I decided to make an online website that provides pictures, videos, and text that can enhance the research I have done. Having all the information online is also a fun way of sharing my research with the public. When looking and reading the website I find it more fun and engaging than just reading a hard copy research paper. With added pictures and videos one can fully understand the topics being presented and how they apply to psychological changes within the children. I am glad that I chose this method and hope others appreciate it also.
As my work progressed I changed and revised my paper. Revising it was an important part of the steps towards academic and well written research. During the whole process of writing I kept the format on a Word document. This helped tremendously so that I was able to make easy corrections and have others physically write on my paper so I could see the changes that needed to be made. Once all the revisions were made I transferred the text from the Word document onto the website into the correct format. I felt like this was a good decision because it made the process easier for me and others who helped with the revision.
Within my editing I had a clear idea on the things that would probably needed to be improved in order to make my research the best that it could be. Such things as creating a more sound background for my sources helped create trustful and valid information that the readers could take as truthful. This was a very important part of the course goals and vital to the content of the research itself. Taking these sources and comparing them with each other was also an important step towards my revision process. Doing this gave the reader the different views on the beauty pageants and let the reader think deeply about how they side with the issue. All of these revisions helped bring my research into a more academic style and gave it the extra support that it needed.
As I wrapped up my revisions there was one final thing that needed to be done. I took all my research that was placed on the Word document and transferred it to my website that I had made. I took each category of my research and made it into corresponding pages within the website. Each of these pages contained pictures that helped strengthen the topic being discussed. I felt that the visual aspect of the pictures helped tie up all the questions and loose ends that could possibly occur from trying to imagine the appearance of the contestants. Throughout creating this website I encountered some problems with the formatting. For example it would not let me indent paragraphs and the spacing within pages such as 'References' was different than an academic style. After considering these formatting issues I decided that it would not effect the project in its entirety.
Having the opportunity to research, prepare, and write on a topic that I am passionate about was a great experience. This class prepared me to be able to add academic and personal writing to form an approved style. Through the process of revisions I furthered my understanding on how to write a research paper correctly. Even revising and viewing other student’s papers was an experience that helped me identify and point out corrections that I would possibly miss in my own paper. This project will be one that will be beneficial to my college career in almost any of my future classes.