Finding Life Beyond Earth

Choosing my topic

• Personal interest

• Not on the curriculum

• Something I hadn't done much research on in the past

• Easy to write about

• Good sources

Initial planning

• Started researching my topic

• Read some articles and essays on my subject

• Made a mindmap of what I wanted to include

• Began to think about the structure of the essay

About my essay

• 3 sections

• The Fermi Paradox

• Solutions to the Fermi Paradox

• The search for E.T LIFE

My title

• Had to clearly describe the content of the essay
• Had to make it sound interesting
• I had a lot of ideas

Writing the essay

• I collected all the information I wanted to cover

• I made a plan

• I wrote a really rough draft

• I had to split it into 3 sections

• I edited the draft

• I made another draft

• I kept on editing it

The final essay

• I found some pictures to add to my essay

• I added footnotes and endnotes

• I showed my draft to Mr Atkins

• I shortened it by 500 words

Sources

• I had started looking for sources when I started planning my essay

• I already had some good books and magazines on the subject

• I kept a list of all the sources I used 

• I had to make a bibliography and endnotes

• I mainly used websites and articles from BBC Focus

Choosing sources

• Reliabity

• Using a variety of sources

• Types of sources

• Sources I rejected

Problems

• It turned out to be really complicated

• My essay was really long

• I spent too long writing it

• Procrastination

• Some sources were hard to find

What went well

• I stuck fairly closely to my original plan

• I finished the essay on time

• I liked the end product

• It contained most of the information I wanted it to

• I chose reliable sources

What I have learnt

• Keep a list of the sources you use

• Try and be more selective about what you include

• Stick to the word limit

• Write down all the stages of planning

Any questions?

The End!