Excellence in Writing

This is our second year of being a part of writing class. We use the Excellence in Writing DVD course. Thanks to Mr. Pudawah (the teacher on the DVD) and our moms, we've become much better writers! Here are a few of our "easy beginning of the year" essays. We've taken the key words from each sentence and re-written it in our own words.


The Most Important Figure
By Brianna Christensen

Robert Gosseteste who was the bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in 1200 AD was the most important figure in the in the middle ages. He was sincerely committed to the belief that the secrets of the natural world could be explained by the laws of God. MR. Grosseteste wanted to learn what caused things to happened. Instead of making complicated inventions, he only wanted tounderstand why they worked. Naturally he taught that scientists should use observations and then make tentative explanation, to describe why things worked. It was because he was the first to explain and use the scientific method that he was considered to be the most important figure of his time.

Thanks Thomas Bradwardine
By Heather Christensen

Thomas Bradwardine was the first to investigate Aristotle's ideas. For hundreds of years Aristotle was the standard for science. Thomas believed that the earth was made up of four substances which are: air, water, fire and earth. Thomas explained why rocks fall: It is like the rocky earth and wishes to be with it. Being as smart as he was, Thomas also explained why he believed smoke rose: It is like air and the fire of the heavens so it goes that direction. Thomas bravely explained why things moved: things move when a force moves them. Thomas was determined also to find out why things stopped. When using mathematics and experiments, Thomas was able to prove that some of Aristotle's idea were wrong! Obviously we know now what was wrong. We thank you Thomas Bradwardine.

From Careful Observation to Brilliant Conclusion
By Rachel Christensen

The scientific method has been used for hundreds of years by scientists, evidently to help them explain the mysteries of the earth. There are four steps to the scientific method which are: observation, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion. Observing something in the world is a scientist's first step. Then he makes a guess as to how it works or why it occurs. Determining if his hypothesis (or guess) is correct is the following step, which he figures out through experiments. Finally, from results, a scientist can conclude whether his hypothesis was indeed correct or not. Over time, if many scientists come to the same brilliant conclusion, their hypothesis is recognized as a scientific law.