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Joshuah Mills
Professor Fran Voltz
UWRT 1102-30
11 November 2014
EIP Reflection
When I began thinking of a topic for my proposal I immediately started considering ways
to incorporate health into my essay. Being as I intend to pursue a career in healthcare, and since
I have always found information surrounding this field intriguing, I figured that If I incorporated
this topic into my writing I would be much more engaged in the project. Initially, my topic was
on the direct impact that media, in all aspects from televised news to social media, has on our
health overall. My initial idea and perception was that misconceptions in media is intentionally
utilized to cause an effect. Pharmaceutical companies using media misconception to sell a drug
for example. Although, while I learned that this certainly does occur, I discovered through my
research that this is only a small aspect of media's influence on health. Instead, I learned that
media's influence is caused more by a disconnect between medicine and how it is reported.
Based on these discoveries I decided to change my topic to focus more on this disconnect and the
misunderstanding of media reporters and their consumers. While my topic still fell under the
connection between media and health in the broader sense, my new topic focused more on our
perception of media and health.
Unsurprisingly, what I uncovered in my research was the biggest contributor to the
change of my topic. When I began searching for sources to explain my topic I was
underwhelmed with evidence to support my initial claims. Instead, I found a surprising amount
of information and opinion pieces outlining perceptions on medicine and miscommunication in

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media. Once I had decided to change my topic I had yet to develop the main points of my essay,
so my research at that point was simply gathering as much information as I could find based on
my new topic. Unfortunately, I discarded most of the sources I had found in my initial research
for my new topic, but I was able to gather a few main points. Despite being able to find general
sources on my new topic fairly easily, finding sources to fit with what I was trying to express in
my essay was frustratingly difficult. However, a lack of evidence for an antithesis to my
argument led me to believe that my topic was not entirely unsupported or irrelevant.
The writing of my essay, despite having all of my sources and points in order, proved to
be difficult to accomplish. I was unsure of how I wanted to approach the topic and therefore
lacked an outline or any prior planning. For me, however, this is usually my writing process. I
tend to work out and sort the presentation of my ideas on paper as opposed to planning them out
beforehand. This also entails that spend an excess amount of time rewording, reorganizing, and
changing my statements as I write. Because of this, what I had initially intended to be an
informational or awareness focused piece wound up becoming an argument essay upon
completion. I attribute this genre shift largely to this writing process, but also because I found
that my sources would also support an argument against media miscommunication. The overall
tone in my writing remained largely objective due to the factuality of some of my sources.
Before this project I have had to complete numerous, and in some cases far more research
intensive, projects and essays. Usually, I am able to find sources more effectively and easily
than I had for this project. What may have contributed to this however, may have been the fact
that I did not have a clear list of points to support prior to conducting my research and therefore
lacked any clear direction in terms of what I needed to look for. Another clear difference
between this and some of my past notable research project is the topic's scale. Usually for me,

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my topics are not as large in scope, and therefore meant research was more conclusive and
precise. Undeniably, I spent an exceedingly longer amount of time, proportionately, searching
for my resources. Despite this, I found my research for this project to be enlightening in a sense.
Because I knew little about my topic beforehand, I wound up learning more about my topic for
this project than I would for projects where I am simply supporting my own preconceptions.
Finally, having the ability to access a university library and database was extremely helpful.
Many of my sources came from here, and once I had learned how to search for sources here
effectively, I was able to find them more effectively.
The contribution of my writing group to my writing has been helpful to me overall.
Usually, I received very little feedback in aspects such as grammar and phrasing, but the
feedback I did receive I found to be far more helpful. My writing group usually had a few ideas
to add to my writing, which I did incorporate in some cases. Additionally, a few members
suggested that my topic was too broad overall which also contributed to me choosing to narrow
my topic. While these contributions were certainly helpful, I found the ability to work with and
critique writing other than my own to be far more valuable. Before this class I had seldom
overviewed another writer's work, and doing so in my writing group forced me to think more
critically about what I was reading. I could then apply this to editing my own writing.
Throughout the entire process of completing this project I have learned an enlightening
amount of information on media's influence, not only on health, but on society as a whole.
While many would certainly accuse me of being skeptical, I will be approaching medical advice
I gather from media sources far more cautiously than I have been. From my research, I have
discovered that the false medical information in media is unacceptably common. Also, I have
discovered the scope of the danger presented by this false information. I have become more

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aware, from my research and class alike, of the impact that media has on society, and just how
much we let it occur.
As I look back at this project as a whole, I realize the amount of work and time that I
have put into completing each part of it. Undoubtedly, writing each part was challenging and at
times frustrating, but surprisingly the entire experience was not altogether unenjoyable. The
overall process of writing this project has contributed to an improvement in my writing; I have
been able to further develop my writing style, construct and organize my own topic and
argument, and conduct research from a perspective that I had yet to obtain. Interestingly, this
project, despite all of the factual and opinion information I have learned from my research, has
contributed most significantly to my improvement as a writer.