I have officially finished my whole essay. It has been a very long couple of weeks, having to do initial research, formulating my question, researching my question and putting it all into the final product. While it has been very challenging, I have also found it beneficial as it made me manage my time effectively and also gave me a greater knowledge on the topic as I had to formulate my question myself. Overall, it has been tough, yet challenging, but I am extremely relieved that it is over now! Hopefully I have done a good job with my essay as I am very proud of it. (:

Today I finally finished my essay although I intend to do some final editing tomorrow to ensure it is ready to hand in. I found it quite challenging to formulate the information I had found into a well structured essay. It took a surprisingly long time for something which was only 1500 words, but I got there in the end and I am very pleased with what I have produced. 

I am trying to through a lot of my essay today because I am going to be away all weekend. Fortunately I have been given an extension on the task until Friday but I am hoping to get my final product done as soon as possible. At the moment, my biggest challenge is utilising all the information I have found and putting it into a sophisticated, well-structured essay. I will attempt to get about halfway through my essay tonight and then leave the other half and editing for sometime during this coming week of school.

Today is our final lesson to work on our work in class. I have spend this time editing my blog posts and also trying to write some more of my essay. It is progressing quite well but I do feel as though it doesn't flow very well in some sections. I think I am going to attempt to finish the whole essay before I begin to edit it though, just so I have see the essay as a whole so I can join all my ideas together more effectively.

TOday I have began to write my essay. I am finding it a bit overwealming trying to sort all my information out into structured paragraphs. There was a stage where I was considering to do an article instead but after speaking to Dr Arends I feel more confident that an essay is actually a more appropriate form for my research question. I have started roughly writing my introduction and my body paragraphs on the Enlightenment and Catherine's correspondence with the philsophers. I also now have found a thesis statement (Through Catherine’s the Great’s correspondence with Enlightenment Philosophers, she formulated reforms during
her reign which had an impact upon Russia) although I think it needs to be articulated better. Hopefully in the lesson tomorrow I will be able to make more progress with my essay.

After speaking to Dr Arends about my research question, she has suggested that I rephrase it slightly in order to make it more clear as to what direction I am heading in with my research. Now , instead of my question being 'Where did Catherine’s reforms originate and what was their impact on Russia?', I have now changed it to Who influenced Catherine's reforms and what impact did these reforms have on Russia?' This altered question makes it clear that I want to explore the idea that the philosophers were behind the ideas for her reforms as a result of her correspondence with them.

Essay Paragraph Structure
So basically this is how I intend to set out my information for my Essay.

Introduction:
Basic overview of the whole essay

Body Paragraph 1:The Enlightenment

• When it began
• What was it about
• Which countries demonstrated the ideas of the enlightenment
  

Body Paragraph 2:
Philsopher's Influence

• Which philosophers interested Catherine the most (eg. Voltaire)
• Catherine's correspondence with them
• How did their ideas help to shape her reforms

Body Paragraph 3:
Catherine's Reforms

• Political
• Social
• Cultural

Body Paragraph 4:
Impact on Russia

• Outcomes of some of her reforms
• eg. Russia became a major country, more power, expanded

Conclusion:
Summary of Essay

Today in class, instead of
doing our own projects, Dr Arends sat us down and made us think about the
structure of our final product. We discussed how to cite in our essays and also
how to structure our paragraphs using techniques like PEEL (Point, Example,
Explain, Link). We were also given time to try to think about what each of our
paragraphs would be about and were able to talk about them with other people in
the class so they could give us constructive feedback. I found this lesson
really helpful because I had been beginning to feel a bit concerned about how I
was going to set out my essay but now it has all been cleared up. I am hoping to
work on the presentation of my Weebly and possibly begin my final product in the
double lesson on Thursday.

Since formulating my smaller
questions, I have been able to begin my research. I have found the History Today
website to be a very useful resource, along with the History Reference Centre. I
have copied and pasted relevant notes on to my Weebly and then have summarised
them in a separate column. I find it easier to use these sites as resources for
my research because I know that they have a high level of accuracy. In addition, I have also found this website (http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/enlightenment/context.html) very helpful in giving me more extensive knowledge about the enlightenment. I also intend to find some books which are relevant to my topic, in the next few
lessons to give me a variety of research tools for my final product. 

Lately in class I have been looking at smaller research
questions to address in my project. I am looking the use them as sub-categories for my essay and to help structure my paragraphs.

By finding smaller questions within my topic, it breaks it down and makes it easier to know exactly what I need to research.