Document Development Exposition: White Paper

Explain in detail your document’s development from planning to finish, describing your
challenges, how you overcame them, and what you learned.

Planning
Once I read what this assignment was about, I immediately knew what I wanted to do. I took AP
Environmental Science in high school. Though I did not find the class the most interesting one I took,
one topic that always fascinated was the sea level. I found it fascinating how a rising sea level could
have such devasting effects on the world. Once I knew what I wanted to do, I did a decent bit of
research from different sources to make sure I touched on exactly what I wanted to talk about. I did
not really know how wanted to structure my paper in terms of pictures, headers, and colors and
things like that though.

First Draft (for peer editing)

I spent quite a bit on this first draft. When writing it, I would always think of other things to say which
somewhat made getting the draft together. I did a lot of research on alternative energy methods,
effects of the rising sea level, and greenhouse gases themselves. I spent a lot of time on the EPA’s
website. After reading the PowerPoint, I had a good idea on how I wanted to structure my white
paper. The example given in class was a great model to work off and that is somewhat I used. I knew
I wanted color in the white paper somewhere, so I added a sea green color to my headers since I was
talking about the sea.

Second Draft (for your packet)

After looking through my white paper on another day, I realized that I could break up my
“Renewable Energy” and “Alternative Energy” methods down a little further. I did that so the paper
had a bit more readable. The feedback that I got was once again minimal. From the feedback I got, I
moved my page headings to the bottom of the page and made my headings closer to their body
paragraphs. Aside from that, I did not have a whole lot to change.

Final Draft (for your portfolio)

The biggest difference from this draft and my second draft is I added a section that explains how
utilizing alternative energy methods will solve the problem of a rising sea level. Aside from that, I left
aligned all of my titles, changed some heading titles, and made sure to reference my pictures in their
respective body paragraphs. I see that my feedback on Canvas said there were notes on my
document, but when I downloaded it, none were there. I also added another section in my body
paragraph that makes it clear the action I believe that congress should make. Overall, this was
probably my favorite assignment from this.