Independent Study: Goal 1

Writing:

During the process of creating my website, I have documented my progress primarily through writing. In addition to any extraneous output during the website’s creation, such as book notes and chronology drafting, I blogged on a semi-biweekly basis, reflecting on the progress I had made with the project or the struggles I had encountered. These posts were in written in my personal writing voice instead of adjusting the tone for a more formal presentation. Keeping this writing informal made it easier for me to express what I had been working on, and made the pieces more cohesive when I expressed my emotions around the project. However, when I was writing the website itself, I had to change my style of writing for the new audience. While I was still trying to express my ideas as clearly as possible, my tone was more formal. It serves to convey my research with as little bias and extraneous information as possible, so there is none of the flourishes or tangents that can be seen in my blog posts. The tone of the website was also driven by the word count--in changing the voice from passive to active, I was both able to make the writing more fluid and cut additional words. In the required process paper, the tone of writing changes yet again: I was no longer the inconspicuous narrator, but instead addressed my audience more directly. This change in tone is necessary, as the process paper is intended to act as a short reflection on the project’s creation that the judges can easily access. Before the submission deadline, I was able to receive feedback on drafts of website pages from my NEXUS teachers. This process allowed me to more effectively revise or edit pages to refine the writing and content presented.

Information Literacy:

VHD requires a bibliography for every project submitted. In that bibliography, not only are short annotations required, but the sources must also be sorted between primary and secondary resources. During the research and development phases of the project, I kept a document with titles and links to sources. This ensured that, when I went to construct the bibliography, I could properly credit all the resources that helped me create the website. I used Noodletools to generate the citations, and categorized the citations before writing annotations. In each annotation, I provided my reasons for using the source and how it helped me develop my project.

Content:

My research for this project was primarily presented on the website. There, I used the knowledge I had gathered to justify my thesis. I constantly referenced my sources while I was writing each of the pages, in order to present the facts of my project as accurately as possible. The website design was also influenced by the historical content, with the pages set up in chronological order. In addition to the content expressed in my website, I used my blog to further reflect on the content I was learning. In such posts, I discuss ideas such as the impact Williams had as an activist, how her formative years shaped her, her position on peace and the work done by others in the campaign. In this setting, I expanded on my research with personal views on the project while breaking down discipline-specific vocabulary or knowledge for a wider audience. Another setting where I presented historical content was during the NEXUS presentations that closed the first semester. During this presentation, I covered that basic time frame of the campaign and what it had accomplished.

After viewing my website, the VHD judges found that the content presented on the website was strong enough to merit permanent hosting, and suggested that the website be curated by the Vermont Historical Society as an valid, accurate resource for others to access in the future.