memo

To:
From:

Professor Lytle
Hannah Ward

Date:
Subject:

3/30/2016
Metacognitive Reflection: Research Project

The rhetorical situation of my project is to inform my audience of the issues that the
homeless population face in rural areas. The main purpose of this project is to make those
aware that homelessness in rural areas is becoming a significant problem. By coming
together as a community, the rural population can find a solution to this issue. The main
topic of my project is homelessness in rural areas. I became aware of this issue in my into
to social work class. Before learning about this issue, I just assumed that homelessness
was seen primarily in cities. I also never realized that there were several additional
reasons that a person became homeless. After doing thorough research over this topic, I
have become very educated on the issue. As a social work major, I think it is very
important to understand this issue and be aware of the services and solutions that can help
the homeless population rise above it. My project begins my discussing the definition of
homelessness and the all of the reasons why people become homeless. I then discussed
the differences between rural and urban homelessness, and then I provided some
solutions for ending this ongoing issue. I feel that my project can benefit anyone that is in
the social work field. One of the key elements of being a social worker is linking people
to available resources. My project discusses resources available to the homeless
population so a social worker will benefit from reading my project. This was my first
time to use annotated bibliographies, and I now wonder why I never used them before. I
found them extremely helpful because after reading the source, I was able to pull out all
of the information I found useful, and summarize it. Having an annotated bibliography
made it much easier for me to organize my project. For my project, I used one scholarly
journal and five articles that I found on the internet. These sources were effective for my
project because they covered a wide range of issues seen in the rural population. I
received feedback from Professor Lytle and one of my classmates during our in-class
peer review. I always like to have feedback from other people, because I am able to
improve my writing. They suggested I incorporate headings, which made my project
easier to read. This was actually my first time to use APA format, so I was a little
confused at first. One of the difficulties I had was how to cite the author(s) in the text.
Professor Lytle provided several links for us on Blackboard that provided in-depth
instructions on how to correctly format in APA. After reading these links and discussing
APA format in class, I had a better understanding of how to correctly format in APA.
After this project, I think I have become a more in-depth critical thinker, reader, and
writer. I spent a majority of my time researching homelessness in rural areas. While

memo
researching it was important for me to only use sources that provided the most important
and relevant information.