Phase 8

As much as I enjoyed this reseach, I think I'm glad the blog assignment is coming to a close.  8 really is the perfect number.  Way to go Weleski!

I think that I learned what I hoped to if not more.  I saw very clearly that although there are many scientists who advocate Global Warming, most brush away the critics as stupid and refuse to answer their questions, which is what I expected to find.  I also verified some arguments I'd heard against Global Warming and found out some new ones, which was basically what I hoped for.  In hind sight, maybe I should have picked a topic I knew a little bit less about, but I have definitely stayed interested, so I think it has turned out just fine so far. 

I liked that we addressed the topic in phases.  I like using a step by step approach.  It was good to be able to get feed back on how I did in one area before I moved on so that I could fix any mistakes that turned up.  I certainly didn't have anything against it.

I think that when I am researching for assignments I will definitely go at it differently (not that I have much precedent to work on).  I will certainly worry more about credibility and have a few more tricks of my sleeve for finding useful information. 

I don't really think that this assignment has made me more confident in my ability to discuss topics with others.  I think that I was pretty confident before (maybe overly so) and that researching Global Warming hasn't made much of a difference.  I suppose I might be more confident discussing Global Warming, but even there I don't think that I needed any help in this area and that I have already used other oportunities to strengthen my confidence in this area.  In fact, if anything, this assignment brought my confidence back to a somewhat more reasonable level.

I think that the most valueable thing I learned about research in this assignment was how to evaluat credibility.  Evaluating credibility was something that I hadn't really thought about and is obviously a key part of research.  I think that summarizing was a close second, though.  I can remember a number times when I tried to summarize but really botched it up because I didn't have a clue how to do it. 

P.S.  I was glad to see a gramarical error in the directions for phase 8.  It's good to know that even english professors make them from time to time.