While preparing to write my final essay, I worked through multiple ideas and eventually formulated what I wanted to argue in my essay and how I would prove my ideas. At first, I thought I would argue in favor of same-sex education. Eventually I realized I did not believe the arguments my sources were portraying and realized I sided more with coeducation. In addition, my conference with Professor Lueck helped me recognize what I wanted to talk about in my essay. Professor Lueck helped me realize that there was a huge gap in the conversation of coeducation verse same-sex education. I realized that those arguing in favor of same-sex education were ignoring talking about life after college.

Coeducation is much more beneficial because it prepares students for life after college. In a coeducational learning environment, students of both sexes must learn to cooperate together in order to achieve their goals. While researching education, most of my sources did not comment on life after college. That is the research gap I planned to comment on and explore. Locating a research gap was beneficial in formulating my thesis and understanding fully what I wanted to write about in my essay. In addition, my survey results corresponded with the research gap I located which I used as real world evidence to back the conclusion I was arguing in my final essay. Overall, I believe I created a successful thesis and built an essay around a strong idea that I formulated based on research done over the quarter.