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
My chosen Reaktion book was rainbows. I chose this topic with little idea as to what I would be
writing with that theme. I knew that I would have many options of things to write about rainbows
themselves, as well as adjacent topics of light refraction, EM waves, the sun, human perception,
optics, colors, etc. I first wanted to write about blue blocking glasses for computer usage to aid sleep
patterns and retina damage. But in my research, I realized that these glasses are pointless because
computers already have lighting changing settings, which I have been using since that discovery. I
then thought of droughts because of some of my peer’s topics.

First Draft (for peer editing)

A lot of my research sources came from my own learning about droughts, and not just things that I
already knew and found sources to back up that knowledge. Conveniently, there is a US government
site Drought.gov that taught me a lot and had some useful graphics. I tried to emulate the
PowerPoint white paper layout as best as possible, but I knew most of my content would be tied to
all the dangers of droughts with a very simple and concise solution.

Second Draft (for your packet)

After peer review, my conclusion and solution turned out to be even shorter than the succinct length
that was requested. I elaborated on my solution, added more graphs for the problem explanation
sections, and change some minor design and formatting things.

Final Draft (for your portfolio)

I don’t quite understand how my paper doesn’t match the PowerPoints’ sections, besides the fact
that my solution and solution explanation sections were significantly shorter than my problem
explanation still. I suppose this paper turned out to be more of an educational piece about droughts
without much focus on selling a solution. My goal was that the white paper itself sort of is the
solution, because people won’t limit their water usage unless they are presented facts with why
droughts are dangerous and how it affects them. For a sort of informational flyer to distribute about
this matter, a condensed version of the white paper could be created.