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Dear Malcolm, Wow. This semester flew by, I want to start out with thanking you, so well, thank you. I have grown so much as a writer. In the beginning, I was not all that sure of all of the writing involved with this course, but, as the semester comes to a close, it really was not that bad. All of the writing involved with this class has been building blocks for each next paper. The lead up to the final version of the Extended Inquiry Project really helped to put together a good paper in my opinion. Looking back on this semester, I am quite proud of the work I have done and am grateful for the help and every time you have pushed me to think deeper and differently. Lets take a look back over the semester that was. Imagine reading this with Time of Your Life by Green Day playing in the background, or dont, your choice. Starting off the year with the Dear Malcolm letter was a good way to introduce the course I feel. Having to sit down and write about myself was hard at first, but I was able to just tune everything around me out and write. It has become somewhat of a common assignment for me to do after numerous scholarship and college entrance essays as well as essays throughout English classes as my career as a student. The more practice I get at writing about myself, the better I will be able to talk about myself when it comes time for interviews when I am searching for jobs. For me, writing is a process that helps me to gather my thoughts before I can talk through what I want to say. Starting off talking about a topic that I know a lot about was a great way to get into the writing mode for the semester. The letter to you proved to be a very strong building block to set as the base to my writing portfolio this year. I learned what to expect when it comes to this course and what each assignment will entail in regards to what is acceptable and what is considered above and beyond.

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All of the different Daybook assignments, however trivial they may have seemed, they all had some sort of purpose I believe, as is evident in the four different categories required for the E-portfolio. I really enjoyed the daybooks that required questioning, I definitely have plenty of questions floating around in my head. The ability to put all of my questions into one place at the beginning of the semester was helpful and hard. Sure, I have plenty of questions, but it isnt all that easy for me to pin point what it is I want to think about, especially knowing that I will have to write a big semester long report down the road. Despite the pressure, having somewhere where I had to write down all of my thoughts gave me a place to return to and get ideas for my research project. However on the flipside, I was not entirely fond of the reflective daybook entries. I never felt I had sufficient information to write about when it came time to write a reflection on a reading or assignment. But, I do recognize the importance of reflecting on assignments in order to better understand what it was asking or saying in the assignment. The blogs were good ways for me to reflect upon things discussed in class or papers we read. Also, if I found things interesting I would try to make it a point to put it on my blog. I really did enjoy the blog because I could say whatever I wanted to say and not worry about structure or grades or whatever. The blog felt like a place where I could just be free to express myself, which really prompted my interest in the inquiry process. The more I began to express myself, the more I began to question everything and the more I wanted to learn. Next came the topic proposal. Ahh yes, the good ol topic proposal. Writing for me, has always been a process in which I just sit down and write a rough draft, make some minor changes and then spit out a final draft. But thats not how this class was structured, and I am extremely grateful for that. Having to break down this large paper into smaller portions made it much more manageable. Not that I had problems managing papers before, I just had not written

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as many drafts as I have for this paper. I have learned that the more drafts written and the more revisions that are made the better the final paper will be. I thoroughly enjoyed the structure of the topic proposal. It forced me to answer the questions that were presented to me as well as starting a plan for the EIP long before it was due. It was harder to answer the prompts given for the topic proposal mainly because I was not prepared to answer those questions because I had never thought of writing a paper in such a manner. But, theres a first time for everything, thats for sure! Developing an overview really allowed me to find different areas that my project could take me. Next came the fast draft and research presentation. I really enjoyed the fast draft because I was able to just write, it did not have to be any remotely close to what the final paper would be, and that relieved a lot of pressure. It was easier for me to know that I did not have to include every single point that I wanted to include by the end of my paper, it allowed me to let my thoughts just kind of flow. I began to indulge myself within the inquiry process and my research presentation began to take shape. Information flooded in and I had so many different articles and sources that I could put into the research presentation. That allowed me to sift through my thoughts and narrow down what I wanted to include. I found various sources to put on both sides of the global warming debate. But, I had to be sure I would not turn my essay into an argumentative essay, thats not where I wanted it to go. I wanted to leave it up to the reader to determine what they believe about global warming. So it was important to make the research presentation reflect this idea as well, therefore I included two sources supporting and two sources attempting to discredit global warming in my research presentation. I enjoyed the research presentation because it made the second draft easier, already having researched so many different aspects and viewpoints that I could include in my paper. Also, I loved just getting lost in the

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research. Theres so much to learn about climate change, and since there is not a 100% scientific consensus then there are people on both sides of the debate who have good points and some ones that are just ridiculous. It was both enlightening and sometimes frustrating when filtering through different articles, some people made wild claims and had nothing to back their claims up with. How can you back a claim with another claim or without any solid evidence? How am I supposed to believe what you have to say? Im not. That was a little frustrating when doing my research for this presentation as well as later on. But the research presentation and fast draft were great stepping stones that forced me to prepare for the second draft. The second draft was more difficult as it was time to start refining my paper. It wasnt just adding on to the fast draft, it was time to revise and get others to revise it as well. It felt good to crack down and buff out the rough edges of my initial portion. Not to mention the peer review process really helped me. My peers showed me different areas of my paper that required more explanation as well as better structuring and condensing certain parts of my paper where I got a little too wordy. I like words, its hard for me to condense my writing down consciously, but having my peers read through my paper, they can identify it a lot faster than I could. I again liked the fact that I could continue to just let my thoughts flow when I was writing my second draft. I could wait until peer reviewing to clean up my paper before the second draft was finished. But on the flip side, I was a little confused when it came time to turn in the second draft on whether I would turn in a copy of the peer edited copies or not, but it was easy to figure that out. I am quite proud of my second draft, I felt I got in depth enough and got all of my points across that I wanted to at this point in time. I had plenty of material that I wanted to include in the next portion of my paper in order to finish up the final version of the paper. Coming out of the second draft, I was happy with how my building blocks were stacking up.

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The Extended Inquiry project started out quite dauntingly, but it turned out to be quite enjoyable for me. I really enjoyed the inquiry process, delving into the search for answers, letting the research guide me, it felt natural to me. I feel like the Extended Inquiry Project as a whole has been my most important work. All of the steps I took toward writing each assignment were put together to create the final EIP project. I am very proud of all of the work I have put in to the paper and I feel it came together quite well. It was a ton of work, but breaking it down into these smaller assignments really helped. I have always struggled with starting assignments early, and I still do on some levels, but by being forced to start this EIP long ago I was able to put a lot of diligent work in to it that I can be proud of. In my final paper, I feel I was able to condense my writing, and elaborate much better, where I needed to. I also feel like I was able to address the fact that either side of the argument toward climate change could be the answer, but as of now there is no final answer. I want to leave it up to the reader to decide, leaving my paper as unbiased as I could. I also felt I was able to address in my final work the importance of keeping the Earth clean. It is our home, our only home, and if we ruin it, thats the end of everything we know. In high school, I was very concerned with cleaning up after ourselves having taken a class on Environmental Science, leading a cleanup campus project with a few friends at my high school, and having been a Boy Scout for 7 years. The environment is important to me, and taking care of Earth is something we need to concern ourselves with more, that is what I want to emphasize. I feel like I was able to address that at the end, that no matter the answer in global warming/climate change debate, the Earth needs to be taken care of better. This paper is something I can look back on in years to come and be proud of the effort I put into it and I can use all of the knowledge that I have learned during this inquiry process in my years to come trying to help enlighten my peers in the importance of being knowledgeable, not

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just about climate change and the environment, but being inquisitive of everything. An inquiring mind is important in todays society where there is so much to learn each day. The more I learn, the more I come to realize I hardly know anything at all. I want to be better able to understand a wide variety of topics and subjects so that I will be a more knowledgeable person and be a more rounded individual. This class has taught me a lot. While Ive always considered English and writing one of my strong suits, it has allowed me to learn the many different aspects of my writing that could stand to be improved upon. For example, I have always struggled with being too wordy and assuming that the audience understands everything that I do. This is no different in this past semester. It come about during my peer edits, when I became aware that I need to be sure I explain everything that is not common knowledge. This is one of my weakest points when it comes to writing. Although, I do struggle a lot with writing too much. I can write on and on forever if I really wanted to. In the engineering major, papers are supposed to be short, sweet, and to the point, where I like to elaborate and write on and on and on and on and well you get the point. On the flip side of the coin, I feel that I do have very distinct strengths when it comes to writing. I believe I am very strong at writing introductions and conclusions. I love writing them in fact, it comes so naturally to me now, to sum up the paper. That comes from all of my honors courses throughout high school, forcing me to write introductions and conclusions over and over so that I could garner a better understanding of them and they could in fact become a strength. Well that seems to have worked out, in my opinion. All in all, I do not feel that any of the assignments or activities were too difficult for me. Although I was surprised by one aspect of the class, the blog. I never thought that I would have a blog, let alone understand one. But as the semester has come and gone, I realize now that it was a

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good experience for me and I learned a lot about just expressing exactly what I wanted to say, without any real rules of what I was supposed to say. Sure, there were given assignments, but they were more guidelines than rules really. I think that is something that I really enjoyed about this class as a whole: the subject was up to my discretion. What I wrote was what I wanted to write about, I just let the research guide me. I tried to be as impartial as I could when it came time to writing my drafts. As a writer, I feel like I have progressed a lot this semester, but not only as a writer, but as a questioner, a thinker, and a person as well. At the beginning of the semester I was not all that interested in questioning and learning about everything, but now I have come to realize that there is just so much to learn and the only way to learn is by having an open and inquiring mind. Having realized what I need to work on with my writing is a good step down the path of becoming a better writer. Being curious is crucial as well. Learning is something that I intend to do for all of my life because there is always more to absorb. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it will only help me grow. Moving forward, this class has been a great addition to my repertoire. All of the different types of assignments and media and papers used have really benefited me. From the Research Presentation powerpoint and each different draft we have written to the daybook and blog entries, I have experienced a whole new style of writing that I was not too keen on earlier. Breaking down the final Extended Inquiry Project into various drafts to build the final draft was new to me. I am used to writing a rough draft and then editing that for a final draft, but doing the fast draft, the topic proposal, the research presentation, all before what I would consider the rough draft really opened my eyes. I will have to try this new process in classes down the road and hopefully I will be a better writer after taking more time to evaluate my papers. Looking back over this semester I am very grateful for everything that I have learned in this class, and I

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am thankful to have experienced such a class with you. Thank You Malcolm. The loose but rigid structure to this class really forced me to think in what it was that I was actually writing about and what I wanted to include. The research I did was all on my own, and it was fascinating. I feel that this class really forced me to spread my wings and fly and experience a new understanding of what it means to be a writer. I may have always felt that English and writing was a strong suit of mine, but it was not until this semester that I really began to enjoy it. I believe my work speaks for itself as I have finished my E-portfolio and have put all of my work on display for the world to see. I have learned so much about how to break large papers into smaller parts at a time, and that can easily be applied to any sort of project. I also have grown so much as an inquiring mind, like I have said before, I realize now just how much I do not know, and the only way to learn is to be a questioner. I have been keeping up with the news even more now, just to keep up to date on everything going on around me. So I really am happy that I have this class under my belt, and moving on toward the future, I can apply the lessons that I learned in this class in order to succeed in my academic and professional career. I want to take these last few sentences to properly thank you for all of your support this past semester. So thank you again Malcolm, this has been our travel through the semester, and as the Green Day song ends in the background, I wrap up my letter and bid you farewell. Thank you again, Craig Davenport