Tabitha Shearin

Debra Dagher
UWRT 1102
April 30 2015

Extended Inquiry Project Reflection

From beginning to end, the subject of my essay never changed. I stood firm on the grounds that
my point: living off-grid is beneficial, and that this would be the main point of my essay whether
the evidence showed me positive or negative sides. Overall, I was able to keep the same subject
and theory while presenting both sides. Although I kept to my point, my perspective changed
quite drastically. After researching the negatives of living off-grid, I realized that many people
feel that aspects of off-grid living are not healthy. Research that was provided by these sources
made me sway my view but also led me to question their integrity and debate whether these
sources were looking at all sides, or just their own.
In the beginning I started with the sources that directly, or as best as they could, answer my
initial question. After narrowing down my thesis and weeding out sources that provided good,
but far too in depth, information; none of my sources were the same from beginning to end. I can
honestly say, none of my sources were useless; all provided the appropriate responses and
answers to my questions but from having to shorten my essay drastically, many of these sources
were deleted. The unfortunate, but interesting, part of my essay was there are no sources that can
directly answer this question. Because of this, all sources answered sub questions or led me to a
solid conclusion on one big question.

There were many surprise turns in my research. First of all, I figured I could not be the only
person to debate this question, therefore, I would assume to find articles, websites, etc that would
validate my stance and give me viable sources to back their data. This was not the case. Within
my question, I was forced to break down into sub questions; had I not done this, I would never
be able to reach a consensus and all of my sources would appear random and useless; not to
mention the length of my paper would have been
over 20 pages. I did, however, find many great articals, scholarly journals, government reports,
and organization's websites that gave an incredible wealth of knowledge on aspects of living offgrid. These sources became the framework for my final paper as they provided the most
trustworthy and useful information.
The most challenging thing I encountered writing this essay was narrowing everything down.
Going from a rough draft with 13 plus pages full of rich analysis, graphs, charts, and to a final
with roughly eight, was very difficult. I took out my charts and graphs and reduced the
information about my three families by more than half. Placing myself within a research paper
was uncomfortable but gave me the opportunity to voice concerns that would not be valid in a
typical research paper. For example, The University of Arizona claims there are no real benefits
to eating organic vegetables over treated vegetables; in a normal research paper this would either
be a source I leave out or a source that I use but not question. Because I was in this research
paper, I was able to discuss that there study, although done by an accredited institution, seems
like a load of cow manure. I used this source in the end just to prove that although there may be
facts given to the public, everyone should use their own judgment. The most rewarding part of
writing this essay was going through the process of a first draft, tearing it completely apart down
to the framework, and rebuilding from there to create a thorough, complete essay.

I have done several, if not many, inquiry projects and this one was different in many ways. I have
never been allowed to insert myself, and my opinions, into research and have absolutely never
used I in anything other than in an introduction. This project was similar in many ways to other
inquiry projects I have done, in the sense of structure, but I felt that this project went way too in
depth, almost to a fault. Although I liked the activities that went along with guiding me through
this, I felt a good deal of them were time wasters and as a college student I should know how to
do many of these things already.
I am a very straightforward person and I feel that students who get into a University should
perform as such. If they are unable to write an essay, then so be it; fail. But I dont feel that an
excess of activities makes anyone understand these concepts better.
In all honestly, because of the mass amount of assignments, it was hard to even focus on how
much I am growing as a writer. Deadlines were tight and assignments were added off a whim so
between making sure assignments were done and reflecting on whether my inquiry project was
the highest quality possible, deadlines came first. What I learned from this was how to organize
my time. Setting aside time to complete the small assignments while making sure I have ample
time to read over my drafts was something I had to stress to myself throughout this class.
Overall, I learned a great deal about myself as a student and a writer. I am glad to have gone
through the process this way, even though it was a stresser.