When I first developed my syllabus, I had a lot of interests. There were so many topics that I wanted to potentially cover. I did not know how to narrow down my ideas. Needing to create a syllabus pushed me and sort of forced me to choose. I decided to work on a broad topic because I would have more possible directions to take. I could always narrow down my topic later. I knew I was interested in the city and the public events New York has to offer. I was also interested in the different public spaces of New York, such as parks. These two interests are directly connected because most times, the public events are held in public spaces like parks. At the same time, I also wanted to incorporate narratives and photography in my work. To relate this back to my topic of the public spaces and events in the city, I looked at how communities are developed within cities by these gatherings. To present my work and collect research, I wanted to get to know the stories of individuals and showcase my information through personal “blog posts”/reviews and photography/videos while also incorporating interactive guiding aspects like a multimedia map.

I knew from the start though that I would not follow the syllabus strictly. Creating one was great for brainstorming and actually moving forward with an idea. However, I prefer to work non-linearly. Rather than doing my research journal in the order of my syllabus, I took the different parts of my syllabus and chose to focus on whatever I felt relevant that week. Sometimes, I would revisit the same topics and further develop the ones I thought were more important. However, my actual research has been quite varied and not directly related to the topics I presented in my syllabus.

By the time of the topic proposal, I realized that my project was still too broad and I did not know what direction to take. Finally, I decided to narrow down my research by focusing on the French community and how the French residents as well as Francophiles have helped shape the culture in New York City. I would still be keeping with the narrative-based theme by interviewing members of this community and by documenting my own personal responses to the public events and programs offered. Then, I would present the work in an interactive guide website. I have taken the ideas in my syllabus and made them more manageable by focusing on a certain community that I am very much interested in.

Currently, I have a lot of resources to help me with research. I have only begun the actual research on the French community recently, so I still do not know how useful my resources will be. However, rather than having difficulty in finding information to conduct my research, I am having difficulty in managing to sift through the information and actually read it in-depth. Therefore, I need to do some catching up.