Ryan Biondo

Our first project was a text-based research paper on a topic of our choice. I chose to research electronic music, and it’s history, as it’s becoming exponentially popular in modern music. I wanted to know where it began, where it’s come to today, and discuss the criticism of electronic music today. My research consisted of reviewing several educational articles about electronic music.
Since coming to DU, I have been able to freely explore the beliefs that I believe more identify with me, like Satanism, Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, and Atheism. The point of learning from other beliefs, is to gain more understanding of the entire human perspective, and help myself. I wanted to see how other people have changed their views (or not) since leaving their families and coming to DU. Our Google Map Project was based on the opinions of students, on issues that we take action on everywhere on campus. I contributed my research on the decent of religion in college students. Many people these days are atheists, and exploring many religions besides the very popular Christianity. So, I put together an interview that asked about people’s individual, and current beliefs. I also wanted to know about how they viewed the importance of such beliefs, and where they thought religion is standing today. Their individual accounts are compared to researched articles and studies. I'm interested in seeing people’s current religions, how people's current preferences differ from their past, and the tendency for the same age group, being more inclined to be not religious.
For the Google Maps project, I also researched a current issue on campus: the campus Penrose library’s decision to store 80% of the library’s books in an of campus warehouse, and making the Driscoll Ballroom the temporary library facility until a new library is built in place of the old one. Students and faculty have been outraged that they had no say in the decision. This project is intended for students, probably noticing the same trends of opinionated action around them.
My text-based paper could be significantly better. A major problem, is that I don't establish a very good focus on what the paper is actually about. Very much of the paper is about the history of music in general. This is useful information, in order to understand electronic music and it's history, and how it's gotten to this point. However, I spend much too much time unorganizingly going on about history. This isn't what the paper should be about at all. My paper is trying to be informative, but it has no purpose to argue any point, whether that be why there is so much critisism for electronic music, or why electronic music is booming in popularity in modern society. To fix these problems, I need to reorganize my paragraphs, especially the introductory paragraphs. They define my paper, and my argument. I also need to go in and strengthen my argument, and use supporting evidence.