Tanvir Halim
Kristin Smith
WR 150
30 April 2009
                                              Formal Reflection
    The final portfolio and research project started from the topic heading listed on the portfolio: Roman Rule, Nobility and War. The student needed to fine tune his ideas until a solid question could be proposed. The first Research Proposal  was critical to this process. While the topic was being researched, the student was introduced to Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare which naturally synergized with the topic. The questions that were put forth were whether or not the characters in Titus Andronicus was ever fit to rule. It was determined that the characters in this play, especially Saturninus, were not fit to rule. The need for a good example of rule arose and so the student was drawn to watching the movie 300. King Leonidas is an excellent example of good rule.
    Now that the student had two exhibit sources to analyze, the student needed to answer the question of what is good rule? The Complete Art of War by Sun Tzu had clear criteria for a successful ruler which can be correlated with those which a ruler requires.
    The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli was also used to give a slightly different view of what successful rule is. It has a more practical, realistic tone to its writing.
    Meditations by Marcus Aurelius also peaked the student’s interest because it was written by one of “The Five Good Emperors of Rome” who was hailed as “The Wise”. Many different examples of what constitutes good rule can be found here.
    Having defined what good rule is through the above sources, there was a need to address what the early moderns thought of rulership. The Regal Phantasm by Christopher Pye was found in the first research proposal. Pye presents various passages about the way early-moderns viewed rulership and he comments on whether or not these views are valid.
    Here the student revisited his earlier work to flesh out his first proposal and present and a research prospectus. A clearer thesis was defined here which led to the acquirement of relevant source material. This in turn allowed the student to provide specific ideas that was  discussed in the prospectus.
    Roman Hero or Revenger? article by Hancock was added to provide an outside argument to strengthen my thesis because the student felt his thesis needed more support.
    A revised proposal was prepared by the student to boil down the ideas presented in the prospectus. This allowed the student to focus on the most important parts of the paper and expand on that. A reflection was also written and a rough draft portfolio created. The reflection was used to analyze the student’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of skill set. The rough draft portfolio was used to get a preliminary organization going.
    Finally, the student incorporated all previous elements and added a few more sources to develop the research paper.
    The welcome page housed a table of contents to keep the student’s sources organized. The Research proposal, Research prospectus, Revised Res. Prospectus, Reflection and Annotated Bibliography sections were used to keep the full text versions of the respective files under each sub heading. The comments were also kept under their respective headings to allow the student to learn from his previous mistakes in categories such as grammar and understanding of arguments.
    The skills section houses all class assignments that are not directly relevant to the portfolio and the research paper. Valuable skills learned are explained on the skills page.
    Lastly, each of the source headings contains a notes link which has all notes the student has taken which he thought relevant to the research paper. The Titus Andronicus and Meditations headings contain additional material obtained from class work which was relevant to the portfolio and research paper.