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Nolan J. Tiersch

Professor Coco

English 1001

21 April 2018

International Health: Treatment of Mental Illness

I frequently become deeply involved with seemingly random trains of thought or general

inquiry towards concepts I encounter throughout common day action. Traditionally, I felt

punished by the academic priority in my life, as each moment feels it should be put aside and

dedicated to topics presented in my education. Thus, when I heard of an academic assignment

exploring a desired topic of inquiry, I was overwhelmed with excitement and for once felt

acceptance within the academic system. Instantly, I gravitated towards psychology as the theme

to focus my inquiry project around; this is due to a reoccurring fascination to constantly

expanding field of research and medicine. I felt inclined to research and expand the societal

standards set for one to be classified as, “Stabile or normal psychological function” and the

international approaches offered to alter those outside of the idle mental status. Additionally, I

wanted to incorporate information existing within the differences among cultures, in efforts to

understand societal norms across the world. Considering these desired topics and focuses, I

formatted my initial line of inquiry (LOI), “Why do middle-class Americans dogmatically rely

on societal standards to feel content?”

The original nature of my LIO was extremely broad, in the sense that research applicable

to the focuses within the main topic were excessive for a six-page research paper. However, I felt

confidence within the approach laid out by Ms. Coco to systematically itemizing the underlying
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themes I hoped to touch on with aid of academic research. The approach consisted of classes

dedicated toward group evaluation, peer review/discussion and librarian seminars. During the

group evaluation, I benefited by the guided conceptual input offered by Ms. Coco. I found she

had a way of extracting the essence of what each student would find conceptually pleasing to

expand upon through their LOI. This focusing of conceptual ideas within the proposed LOI’s

transitioned nicely into finding keywords in an effective manner for the research process. I found

that class time set aside to peer review/discussion was least beneficial of the three aspects

comprised to the approach. Despite some of the downfalls to this aspect, my peers did offer

valuable input for the communication of material to a potential audience. With thanks to the

librarians’ knowledge, I took a massive stride into researching; I was shocked by the profound

effect that breaking my initial LOI into keywords would have on the research process. Keywords

compounded with the offered databases through the LSU library website, posed a novel approach

to finding most of information I found useful.

I was able to develop a more sophisticated LOI with the mentioned approach, “Why do

middle-class Americans dogmatically comply with societal norms to achieve intrapersonal bliss,

and how might integration of other cultures affect Americans psychologically?”. Despite the

effective refining process offered to by our instructor, I went into the creation and submission of

the annotated bibliography underprepared. The block like structure and lack of flow throughout

my LOI used in the annotated bibliography was not preferable to the location of academic

information that supported my intended focus. Most of the sources I located were abandoned as I

refined the LOI additionally; further refining was essential to the discovery of adequate source

material available for formal writing assignments, such as the teacher comment draft.

3) Annotated Bibliography
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a) General disorder and broad coverage into unrelated fields

b) Free association rather than bringing together two opposing questions for conclusion

c) To combat the degree of randomness, (Combined the IE mindset) personally sought to

narrow focus of the discovery by wondering about a meshed approach. Reflection over

break.

PROPOSED OULINE FOR CONTINUATION OF THE EXPLORATORY ESSAY:

4) Consolidation into Teacher Comment Draft

a) Final LOI (“How does the methodology for treatment of mental illness differ between

Eastern and Western cultures?”)

b) Sub questions to focus and organize the topic for narrowed optimization conclusion

1) “What are the medicinal approaches for mental health?”

2) “What are the therapeutic approaches for mental health?”

3) ”What are advantages and disadvantages for mental health?”

c) types of sources I dropped, kept, and how I found new ones

5) Take always from the project

a) How to ask appropriate questions and strategically flow towards an end goal

b) How to affectively research academic research to back up a format determined in 5a.

c) Finally, what I learned about myself and the mindset engraved thus far.