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Tiffanie Colecchia

LIT 374

Dr. Tarter

2 June 2020

Summary of Research Experience

My research project on Elizabeth Ashbridge and the second-generation Quakers was

overall a fun, exciting, and challenging experience. When I first opened the explanation on this

research project, it seemed very overwhelming. There were many directions, and assignments

within the assignments to complete for this project. After I unpacked the details and thoroughly

wrote everything down that I had to do, the process seemed a little less stressful. I first want to

start with my experience with planning. I knew that to make this experience successful, I needed

a thorough plan. The first step was reading the provided text Journeys in New World, to get a

good idea of the Ashbridge’s overall life. Next, I made an outline based on the information I

found (I made categories). After this, I researched articles that were in support of my categories.

The topics in my outline that had the most support, were the ones I elaborated most on. Lastly, I

added all of my research to a PowerPoint. This made my project split into sections, which made

it a lot easier to stay calm during the entire process.

During my research experience, there were successful and challenging parts of the

process. I want to first start with “peaceful” parts of my research project. I say peaceful to

describe the less stressful parts of my research project. One of the things I found peaceful in the

process was first reading about Ashbridge’s life, and after I figured out the subjects I wanted to

focus on. This is because simply reading about Ashbridge was fun and interesting. I liked

learning about an important historical figure in history. She made an impact on religious beliefs
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and I think that was important. Another peaceful part of my research process was after I figured

out which subjects were most important. This is because I was able to focus on a handful of

information, rather than too much. The part I found most challenging about this project was

finding the right articles. During the process of finding the articles, I had to make decisions on

what was most important. There was a lot of information in every article that I found. This made

it difficult to figure out what was most important in them. Overall, this experience taught me a

lot about Ashbridge. I enjoyed learning about someone new and expanding my knowledge about

people with female authority and bravery. I enjoyed being able to do this research project.