Erica-Grace Lubamba

Professor Heather Custer

RC 2001

9 April 2019

Part One Reflection

Overall, I know that I could have done much better with my paper. While I was

writing, I felt that I had turned it into a research paper of sorts. I knew I was presenting

information but I don’t think it was in a white paper way. Traditionally the white paper is

used in the business realm, rather than the humanities and I felt limited by the genre of

the white paper. I had chosen to write in my major, which is Global Studies, and I felt

that there was no problem that I could present with a solution, as solving a country’s

cycle of violence isn’t really in my domain, or so I felt.

Reflecting on this paper, shows that there was so much more potential in my

paper, and as much as I gave 100%, it was not enough. I could’ve planned better as to

explore more on the current state of the country, rather than its past. Which is what I

think made my white paper more of a research paper rather than the intended genre.

Writing about the DRC was actually harder than I thought it was going to be. A major

barrier in the writing process was wanting to include so much in only 2000 words. Since

I wanted to include a lot of information, I had several major writing block moments, that

frustrated me.

Besides the fact, that I believe that I did not exactly follow the qualifications of a

white paper, I feel that there were some points that were executed efficiently. I provided
a lot of background information from a lot of different sources, which is something that I

have never done. Normally when I write papers, most of my sources are online sources.

But in writing the white paper, I explored so many different sources, some such as Ted

Talks, that I would never usually consider as a source for any type of paper/research

project. Going past the traditional sources for paper, I can consider different genres as

to provide a more well rounded perspective on my future papers.

As for becoming a thought leader on the DRC, I feel that I am one step closer.

Being from the DRC, I have a cultural understanding of the country, but now I

understand a little more of the history and how that has led to the country’s current

state. In school, we’ve learned that we learn history so that we are not doomed to

repeat it, learning from the mistakes of our ancestors. I want to enter in a field that helps

people and learning how exactly they got to that point in their lives, is important in order

to move forward.

Lastly, I am proud of my paper. It was definitely challenging as I was exploring a

new genre but I put in a lot of time and effort into it and I believe that my final product

reflects the work I put in. If I had a chance to redo it, there would be some things that I

would change such as aligning the paper closer to white paper formatting but overall I

am proud with what I turned in and am excited to transform the information into another

genre as to reach a larger audience. Like I mentioned before, I am proud to be from the

DRC and I believe that the country deserves more attention from the international

community, so that it can hopefully get the right aid that it needs.