Before taking English201: Writing in the Disciplines, I never believed myself to be a strong writer, or someone who actually enjoyed reading. However, this course has changed that for me. In writing essays and reading articles that captivate my attention, I am drawn in to the topic at hand and it makes me want to learn more. I love the fact that throughout the span of this course we have talked and read various current articles that we may sometimes overlook. We have spoken about learning to have empathy, explored the use of creativity, analyzed about the differences in communication between men and woman, and many other topics. I can admit that before  this course, I had no interest in reading the New York Times, but now I even have a New York Times app on my iPhone; I navigate through the internet every other day and read something interesting. The process of summarizing and reflecting upon so many different articles has helped me tremendously when it comes to writing papers. Summarizing, synthesizing and reflection on articles has become a must whenever I am integrating a source into my paper. These are one of the strategies that I have used; I now make sure that I am being the driver of the source. I have also learned to use new research strategies. After revising my paper with Professor Anstendig, I felt like I had gotten great feedback and I began to look for more articles that serve as examples to help me prove my point. As I was searching for articles about accounting fraud, I came upon on article and within that article I found a direct quote from a woman who is a CFE. When I googled this woman's name, I found that she had an entire blog dedicated to fraud examination. While I was on her blog, I was so intrigued by all the interesting articles and began to read up on so many different topics pertaining to the field of forensic accounting. This blog site helped me with one of my biggest problems, which was not having enough examples.  For my next paper, my goal is to provide even more examples, get rid of unnecessary wordiness and continuer revising. Also, I hope that this research experience will help me grow as an individual and as a writer.

In writing my essay I have accomplished many things. First of all, I learned to narrow my focus to a specific topic and only focus on the topic at hand. This is usually a problem for me because many times I find that my topics are very broad. Second, I learned many things that I did not know before my research. In researching about forensic accounting, I decided to narrow my topic to a certain type of fraud, occupational fraud. However, what I did not know, but learned after research, was that forensic accounting is a specific branch in accounting. Forensic accountants deal with no fraudulent and fraudulent cases, meaning that not all of their cases have to do with fraud. Under forensic accounting, there are Certified Fraud Examiners, who are the ones that only deal with finding fraud and many times occupational fraud. Since I learned this, I decided to focus on the types of occupational fraud, which Certified Fraud Examiners are confronted with the most. 

With that being said, I think that my research question is very effective because it is specific and narrow. Although I have done some research, I am continuing to find specific recent cases that have to do with the types of occupational fraud referred to in my essay. Since I have started my essay I have done a lot of revision, especially because I have never used APA format in a paper. At first, APA seems a little confusing, but after seeking help and referring to websites posted on the Pace Library home page, I got the hang of it and became confortable with it. I completed my essay with 4 sources that were very helpful and certainly very credible. The most helpful source was an annual report form the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners on occupational fraud. It provided me with much statistical evidence about specific frauds. 

All in all, I feel that I learned a lot writing this essay and that this paper has helped me develop my skills as a writer.