Dear Ms.

Gordon,

I feel like the biggest thing I got out of this class was having to do the

extended inquiry project. The entire course built up to this project and I felt

like everything we learned in the course was how to write, specifically, for

this paper. Writing a research paper is not the easiest thing to write since

many elements have to be taken into account when writing it. The material

used for the paper, how the sources are used, and the best way to write

about a difficult topic were all address in the course which helped in

completing this final paper. Since the main topic of our course was about

genocide it was hard to learn about at times. The book we used as a

reference for this course was called To Kill a People: Genocide in the

Twentieth Century. Throughout the course, we annotated inside of our books

asking questions, making comments, and highlighting information we might

use for our final paper. These annotations were useful for writing our papers

from both the information from the book or a marked footnote, referencing

an external source.

Aside from the extended inquiry project, the material in this course

was very hard for me to read sometimes. The gruesome details in both the

text and in some of the external resources that were used for our class were

necessary to learn but intentionally disturbing. In learning about the

genocides, it was very clear that the main theme among the four main

genocides that we studied was the purification of race. One of the videos
that we watched in class about race was a documentary about the Brown

Eyes Blue Eyes experiment. This experiment played with the idea of race,

but instead of the color of the students skin they used their eye color. This

experiment showed how easily people can treat others badly or use a man-

made classification to define someone. Learning about these topics was hard

for me, but it was necessary to be able to complete the main part of this

course- the extended inquiry project paper.

When we were assigned to write this paper, there were many

milestones that needed to be completed before the final paper could be

started. The topic proposal, annotated bibliography, and the drafts of my

paper were all stepping stones to completing this final paper. The topic

proposal was the first thing that showed me the formatting and how I need to

write this paper. Since I am an Engineering major, all of the writing that I had

done in the first semester of college was technical. It had been a while since I

had written an essay and I felt that showed in my first topic proposal. I had

asked some peers to review my first topic proposal and they pointed out how

short and technical my writing was. I was happy that I got their feedback and

I felt that help showed in my final topic proposal. I felt the annotated

bibliography was very simple and straight forward, the only difficulty I had

was finding the sources for it. I realized, while completing my annotated

bibliography, how difficult it was to find specific sources on my topic. Books

that had information on the Holocaust and WWII had only brief sections on

the children who lived in Nazi controlled areas. I eventually found sources
that would work for my paper. I did not use some of the sources from my

annotated bibliography in my final paper, those sources were just used to

help me gain a better understanding of what it was like to be a child at that

time. When it came to writing my paper I felt like I wrote my first draft fairly

easily. In my first peer review, it seemed that it was not evaluated as

thoroughly as I need to be but I made the suggested changes of the

reviewer. I also asked some of my friends if they would review my paper as

well and their feedback was very helpful in my final paper.

Overall, I feel Like I learned how to write effectively in this class and

how to just write rather than overthinking what to say. It is easy to get lost in

technical writing and how simple it can be. It is important to know how to

write though, and communication will be important for my future profession.

The research skills I learned in this class I feel will not only be helpful for

future classes but when I get my engineering degree. Technology changes

frequently and if one is not able to keep up with the change in technology

one can become as obsolete as the technology they are used to. With that

thought in mind, engineering is a technology based job and I will be

expected to do research and know how to use these technologies once I

graduate.

Regards,

Lindsey Ward