Earth Odyssey
My final major assignment in English 1A was to write about Mark Hertgaard's book Earth Odyssey (a book all about environmental issues around the globe). My specific objective was to update the information in Earth Odyssey with my own research, comparing Hertsgaard's dated information with new information that I found, and then relate the two. My paper focused on nuclear pollution in Azerbaijan and the Caucasus and compared it to Hertsgaard's stories about nuclear pollution in Russia, Central Asia, and the United States. I used what I learned about writing research papers during my essay about The World Is Flat and improved upon my information and argument, however, my essay was plagued with minor errors. Unfortunately I did not end up spending as much time on this paper as I would have preferred so some of my organization was lacking, even though I knew better. I plan writing a revised version in the future--just for my personal benefit--to eliminate the errors in the paper. My primary issues were run-on sentences and organization, but I also made a stupid mistake with MLA citations.
Overall I do view the essay as a success however, because it demonstrates the techniques that I learned throughout the quarter. I included tie-ins to my thesis and worked on my bridges between paragraphs to clearly present my information to the reader. I also did not fail on my introduction as I had in the past, or on explaining the information that I gathered on my own. While I only received a B+ on the assignment, the paper still reflects a lot of the skills I have developed as a writer through my experience in English 1A Honors. Had I put a small amount of more time into the assignment and corrected my smaller errors, I feel that it would have been my strongest of the class.
