My Researched Essay was a labor of love, or to be more precise, it was about the love of crafting. The Internet has dramatically changed the way creative types, like myself, view the business of crafting. Long gone are the days of just selling our items at flea markets and specialty market trade shows. The World Wide Web has created (pardon the pun) a whole new venue for crafters to peddle their wares. More and more home-based crafters are setting up shop on the Internet. My essay takes a look at the burgeoning industry that is online retailing. The audience I geared my paper to happen to be home-based crafters who are not sure if it is the perfect route to take. My paper gives the who, the what, the where, and yes even the how, of why now is the best time for home-based crafters to start selling their items online.
Just because I chose to write about something creative doesn’t mean my writing process was easy. I learned so much from our textbook and also the assignments leading up to writing the paper. If I had to use one word to describe my writing process, I would have to say it was “informed.” I choose the word informed because my sources really guided my writing. They literally covered every angle I expressed in my essay. I chose to use sources from publications that were industry specific, like Business Week and PC Magazine. For example, I included a quote from the owner of a company that allows crafters to sell their items on their website. Using that source gave me the opportunity to show that there is another alternative to crafters setting up and operating their own site. Of course that brings me to my final point. If there is one thing that I learned while working on my Research essay, it was stick to the facts. Once I did that, everything seemed to fall easily into place.
Also here’s a link that gives a good example of the talent that exists in the crafting world.
My Slideshow 4/18/08“>
