The way I came up with my research question was, I thought about my interests and during that time, I was interested in poverty in the US. However, I was also interested in racism so I combined the two topics together. However, the question I created was too broad, and with the help of Professor Harris, I was able to narrow down my question to the political aspects, specifically the historical and present laws and policies that contribute to the racial wealth gap.

While typing this essay, I did have some trouble finding scholarly sources. I overcame this challenge by being more strategic in gathering my sources. First, I searched on JSTOR, Gale Academics, and Google Scholar. If I didn’t find the source, I would later search it up under the popular media source. I just knew that I needed to find at least 3 scholarly sources for my essay. Furthermore, the video, “How to improve your search terms” that Professor Harris provided allowed me to find sources that I wasn’t able to find previously.

When analyzing my text, most of my sources were extremely long. However, I overcame this by reading the section headings. This allowed me to find certain quotes that would be beneficial to my essay much more efficiently. Another problem I had when analyzing my text was, one of my sources was complex and difficult to understand. They threw several terms that I didn’t understand and the source did not provide any definitions or background to the terms. For example, when my source mentioned the NRA and how it affected black and white Americans, I had to go through my own APUSH study guide to understand the purpose of the NRA.

The audience was a factor in the way I presented the information in my essay. The intended audience of my essay was the American public who are interested in the political and historical perspective of the racial wealth gap. Because this is my intended audience, I wanted my essay to go in chronological order, that way it would be easier for them to understand as time progresses, how the laws and policies continued to discriminate and suppress Black economic success and growth.

Writing this essay has taught me many things such as, in order to be an effective writer, I should add more of my own thoughts into an essay rather than having several sources do the speaking for my essay. I shouldn’t let my sources guide my essay. I should also break down each source one by one and explain them, instead of rushing.

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