Mateo Morillo

Professor Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1103
24 March 2016
Shift of Topic Ideas
I had planned originally to explore if German invented new technology during the
era of World War II. I was interested in this area at first but as the project continued I
noticed an abundance of information of science experiments conducted on the prisoners. I
usually tend to choose the topic with the most information so I do not have to spend too
much time researching. I prefer to find popular sources quickly, organize them, and
present them. So I rethought my original project along the way and it turned out to a topic
in the same area, just with different material. What ended up happening was my final
project revolving around scientific experiments done on prisoners during World War II
and it came out well.
I can tell from my pitch that I had a completely different from the beginning. I
find this process to occur frequently during projects or research. An idea strikes you, and
as you research and develop the idea, you find a different topic with abundant resources.
This sways ones decision and the original topic slowly shifts from one initial idea, to
another topic. The topic is still related, just focused and uses different materials. I have
always noticed this trend when it comes to projects and how they develop over the time
period. It is hard to avoid this type of shift in ideas but I think it is a good thing because

not only does it allow you to explore other areas, it allows you to look within the same
area but different story behind them. Finding new stories to read and learn about things
that you never really thought of before. Of course if the interest is still in the original idea
proposed then go ahead and continue researching, but might as well use a topic that has
more resources rather than something limiting.
In conclusion, my original broad topic remained the same. Research in scientific
advances in Nazis Germany during World War II was transformed into Nazis Scientific
experiments on Holocaust prisoners. The shift from the topic turned out to be beneficial
due to the fact I was able to find more resources that included video testimonies, books,
and journals. Next once all my sources and information was written down, I was able to
work on a presentation that would be creative and work with the multimodal aspect of the
project. Creating the video did not take very long, the voice recording took me a few
takes due me misreading the script, and the final editing only took an hour. I was
relatively satisfied how the project had evolved from the beginning of the semester to the
final deadline. After being a worried about the project initially and thinking it was going
to be another big research paper, I was extremely happy and relieved when I found out
what kind of project the professor wanted us to do. I think because of this, it made the
project less stressful and more appealing than the traditional 10-page essay that many of
us have been doing since high school. I learned a lot from this project and discovered
new ways on asking questions and evaluating scholarly work to be used in my own
research.