I-Search Paper
Introduction
I wrote this assignment on 28th Oct. in 2013. The purpose of this homework was to do a research on the topic I chose, which was death. I interviewed my mom, and used the examples from the book Tuesdays with Morrie to write a persuasive paper.
Reflection
I think the research part was the hardest in this assignment. I had to come up with questions that can make my paper more convincing. The relatively easier part was, actually, using the examples from the book. It was not hard to find examples about death from Tuesdays with Morrie, because the book was exactly about how Morrie taught Mitch about life and death. Therefore I think the part I did well was the examples from the book. If I had a chance to do this assignment again, I would choose generation of education as my topic. I'm glad that I learned how to quote from a book properly.
How Does Death Affect Other People
Part I: Introduction:
Death is the end of lives. Some people die because of sickness, and some people die of old age. People may die with a lot of pain, but maybe not. But the people who were around them---their family and friends will be very sad and shocked about their death. The sadness and the hurt that family feel can be bigger than that person feels. So, after a person’s death, how can it affect their closer family and friends? I felt curious about this. And that’s why I did the research about this topic.
Part II: What I want to learn:
We all know that there are a few things that people do for their dead family, such as visiting their graves. What do people do after their family or close friend died? And why do they do those things? The family of people who died are the closest people who were around them. Their pain of losing family would be the biggest as well. After many years, what things do people remember about their dead family or close friends?
Also, how does death affect people who are living? That’s the thing I want to learn from this search. I think there must be some affection like Morrie’s sickness changed Mitch a lot.
Part III: The story of my search:
I did researches from three resources. First, I interviewed my mother. I asked her about whether she has lost her family or not, how she felt, what are the things she’s still doing for that person and why, what does she remember about that person, how she thinks she changed after that, and what things she thinks are left for her by that person. Then I looked to the book Tuesday with Morrie. I focused on what Morrie said about death and dying. The last source is an online article. I found an article about what impact death can give people.
I interviewed my mother on 10/24/2013 at home. I was hoping to find about her reaction when her grandmother died. She said “When I thought that I’ll never be able to meet her again, I felt so sad.” When I asked her about what does she think are the things her grandma left for her, she said that that is kindness. Her grandma was so kind that she always invited children to her house when their parents were not at home. She learned that we shouldn’t be mean to others, but always be kind and generous to others. I also learned that visiting graves and putting flowers on the graves is to miss their dead family.
We spent a quite long time for reading Tuesdays with Morrie. Morrie and Mitch talked about life, death, family, love, self-pity, and so on. So when I heard that we will use this book as one source, I’ve already thought about what I can use. Morrie says “To know you’re going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time. That’s better. That way you can actually be more involved in your life while you’re living.” (p81) I think he meant that when we learned dying, we know how to live. He also says “Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.” (p133) I learned that even after a person died, they can stay alive as long as their love still exist.
I read an article from Science Daily called “Exposure to Death and Dying Can Have a Positive Impacts, Experts Argue”. I chose this article for the source because I wanted to know how death affect people. It says that there are lots of death and dying go on around hospice care professionals, but actually there are no negatively affection but can have positive benefits. It also says “Participants reported that their work provided a unique opportunity for them to discover meaning in life through the lessons of their patients, and an opportunity to incorporate these teachings in their own lives.” I learned that although the hospice care professionals have death always around them, they can have a positive impact, and learn the meaning of the life. I think the reason why death can give us positive influences when people around us die, is because even the hospice care professionals---people who experience too much dying can.
Part IV: Reflections on My Search:
I learned that writing an organized paper like this will make the essay more organized and easier to write. I think sources are very important because we use them to persuade readers. We should find the sources that are true, real, and easy to understand.
I learned that death can affect a person, and in the most of time, it’s positive influences. Although people are very sad when they lost their family or close friends, they would have learned something important and positive by themselves during they are remembering about that person. People visit graves and put flowers on it is because they want to remember and miss their family.
I haven’t experienced anyone’s death in my life, but I know someday I will. I hope when I met the situation, I will learn something else about life by myself, and the death will also give me a positive affection.