English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

This week's tasks for ENGL421 began with the reading assignment and response concerning research. This reading was very relevant to our groups white paper project as our research will begin shortly, and individual research blogs, tracking this effort, will also be due in a matter of time. For my portion of the group's research, I've decided to focus in on an online approach. This seems quite fitting for this course, as it is online, but I think it will also be the most efficient and accurate way for me to gather information. I also think, with our focus on energy-saving technologies, that it's unlikely I'll find much relevant or up-to-date information from any other sources.

After completing the reading assignment and response, I met with the other members of group 3 at the Union to discuss our project and brainstorm some courses of action. This is when we initially decided to split the research up between wind, geothermal, and solar power. Unfortunately for us, we found that these concepts, based on our chosen audience, were not mutually exclusive enough, and thus we had to refresh our approach. During brainstorming, I recommended to the group that we attempt focusing in on only geothermal energy, and in particular, geothermal heat pumps. I had gathered a little research on each previous concept, and felt that this technology was suitable for our white paper by itself. I found numerous different types of such heat pumps, each with specific advantages and disadvantages relative to the others. On top of this, I felt that a white paper focused on simply geothermal heat pumps avoided the issue of mutual exclusivity that the other concepts had. While a contractor may likely be interested in installing a combination of geothermal, wind, and solar energy products for a homeowner, it seemed reasonable enough to assume that he or she would only be interested in installing a single heat pump system, based on an assortment of factors such as land geography and availability, costs, etc.

As we move into the following week, I am prepared to begin researching one of these individual geothermal heat pump systems, as are my fellow group members. In the following days, we plan to gather this relevant data and then likely meet up again, in person, to coordinate the effort.