My main approach toward writing the essay was as an inquirer since even though I knew fairly much about hydropower before I started researching, this time I really had to find as much information about the pros, cons and background information about the entire thing, from the history to the modern advances. I tried to do as much research before and during the time I was writing the essay, and even though I only have enough space to cover a certain amount of ground, I tried my best to get as much information about the big picture as possible.
Two of the things that I am most proud of in the essay is my time management during the entire project and the balanced research of different parts of the essay
For the first one, after sorting out the format and structure of my essay, I properly managed and divided my week so by the end of the week, I would have both finished properly researching and writing the essay. For Monday and Tuesday, I did the basic research for Hydropower as well as how climate change works. I also then formatted and outlined what each section of the essay is going to be focused on so I know what I would be looking for in my research.There were a few delays, however, since I wasn’t sure how much space 1500 words would take, so it resulted in me writing too much in the introduction, which made me evaluate on how much content I needed to add in each section. It took me a little bit more time to organize on the week’s schedule, but overall, the time management worked out great. I decided to finish the introduction and research by Tuesday, finish the 3 argument paragraphs from Wednesday to Friday, finish and reread my research paper during the weekends, which also left out enough time for myself to do other homework.
For the second one, it actually took me a while to be more balanced on researching different parts of the essay. As I’ve said before, since I wasn’t entirely sure how much 1500 words is at first, I actually wrote almost 300 to 400 words merely about why burning fossil fuel is bad before writing a proper introduction to hydropower, resulting in me having to delete or move a large part of what I originally wrote. After organizing the things I am going to write, I finally figured out the things I am going to write in each section and properly focused my research on a certain aspect of hydropower. I decided to sort out the arguments and the possible counter-arguments others may have on my arguments for each of the argument paragraphs, the information I would be giving in the introduction paragraph and background research paragraph, and after spending a while figuring out exactly the information I need for each paragraph, it made the essay overall a lot better and consistent.
Next time when I write an essay, I would try to plan and organize my paper on the minimum information I should look for specifically before doing the paper, since that often meant I would do a lot of research and try to add all the information in when I clearly don’t have enough space for all that. I would also try to research a lot more about the overall situation before doing and choosing the topic, if given a chance, since I haven’t had enough time to really see which one would be the best energy choice out of all the selections, so if I had time to prepare a bit, I personally think that would improve my essay.
The statement of inquiry of the unit is:
“All forms of energy are related; using any energy resource has both positive and negative consequences.” I think overall I 100% agree with it since over-rely on any energy source, even renewable energy, have pros and cons. Hydropower is a great and clean energy source, but even itself have some downsides to it, such as it harms and affects the environment around it. Because of how big the issue is, I personally believe it’s very important to do lots of research in order to understand the bigger picture here of the affect and impact energy can have on our everyday lives.
Research paper: