Reflection.

Overall, I thought my paper was not that great. The main reason is because I had first wanted to write about the development of Indian music and how it has influenced my life. However, Professor Marsh said I should focus more on how music has influenced my life and how it connects to my life. Another reason is that I don’t think I spent as much time on this paper as I should have.

When we were asked to choose a topic, I thought this topic would be fairly easy and obviously very interesting to write about. However, while trying to find information and writing the actual paper, I realized that it was not that easy at all. Firstly, when trying to make a connection with something, it is essential to include personal experiences, but it is quite difficult to connect those experiences with information from other sources. For example, in this case, I made various connections of how music has influenced my life in order to help me become a better human being and also how I have served my community using my musical talents. When it came to making a connection between these ideas and my research, it was hard because the research did not go too much in depth. I think for a topic like this one, it comes more from inside the person rather than any written source, which is why I feel this paper was a bit tricky to write.

I used a statement, “[t]he classical music of India has its origin as a meditation tool to attain self-realization. All the different forms of these melodies (r[a]agas) affect various “chakras” (energy centers, or “moods”) in the path of the “Kundalini.” There are specific physical, mental, biological and spiritual results associated with activation of these centers.” Professor Marsh said I should have expanded more on how this happens, but like I mentioned earlier, it’s hard to explain. Another reason this topic was difficult is because the paper contained a few Indian words, which the audience probably didn’t understand.

I think my topic was a bit too personal and that’s why it was hard to focus on one main point and support it with enough details. I also found that I repeated some things throughout the paper. I think that I have learned a lot from writing this paper, mainly that even though I thought that this topic was simple to write about, it turned out to be the opposite. I think this report was a great idea because it helped me to realize that all writing requires an ongoing task of proofreading and editing.