Throughout the term, we practiced our writing abilities by authoring a variety of technical documents such as memos, proposals, peer reviews, and reports. All of which, required the use of different writing techniques. In this reflection, I delve into what I perceive to be my weaknesses and strengths with regards to my learning process and my writing strategies.

A recurring comment I receive with regards to my end-of-unit reflections is that they are too brief. In general, our reflection instructions require us to talk about one or two topics regarding the current unit. However, I find that I have difficulties developing these topic beyond two or three paragraphs without further guidance. This might be due to my physics background. In general, besides showing my mathematical work and/or explaining my procedure, I am not required to develop my answers further. This practice translates into my writing, which is not really conducive for effective reflections.

An important strength I have developed in this course is my ability to peer review. In general, I have received good comments regarding my ability to evaluate the work of my peers. Specifically with regards to the tactful way in which I make suggestions to my classmates. I consider peer reviews to be a learning experience. As I have mentioned in previous unit reflections, I learn a lot from my peer’s work. With every document I examine, I find new skills to adopt and, on occasion, some mistakes to avoid. For this reason, I have come to greatly value peer reviews. I always make an effort to give my teammates clear and helpful advice while keeping in mind the effort they have put into their writing.

All in all, my writing style has definitely improved thanks to the teachings in this class. It has helped me realize my strengths as well as areas where I can improve.

This was an interesting task. As noted by professor Paterson in the assignment instructions, there are many templates for a web folio. They all had the same goal however, to highlight one’s experience and/or learning. Starting the web folio was challenging at first. However, after reviewing my classmates’ websites, I had a better idea of how to start. I think what I struggled with the most was deciding on what visuals to use. Besides a picture of myself on the home page, I couldn’t decide what other image would be appropriate in a professional looking web folio.

Completing the folio was gratifying. I could see how the assignments we worked on during the term came together to form our folio. I also had the chance to review my earlier written work and realize how much my writing style has changed. I notice how I always look for the most concise way of forming a sentences when I write.

After making this folio, I finally became comfortable working with Word Press. It is ironic that this would come to happen at the very end of the term.

I began the definitions assignment by selecting a term in my field (Physics) commonly referenced in everyday life. The concept of weight came to mind, because it is often confused with mass. Defining a scientific concept to the layperson was interesting. I found that, when defining weight, I relied on other physics concepts that would most likely not be known to the layperson. Thankfully, I was able to rely on parenthetical and sentence definitions within my expanded definition to clarify secondary concepts.

The peer review assignment was, in my opinion, the most useful task thus far. As I helped my classmate with her document, I felt I was learning how to improve my own writing. I saw many writing and formatting techniques that I could adopt. Alternatively, finding errors in my peer’s document made me reflect back on my work, had I committed the same mistake? I also found that reading my peers’ work gave some insight into how they structured their ideas. Perhaps, regular peer reviewing of teammates’ work could help improve communication?

As for my self-editing strategies, I have not changed my process. I still think the best way to self-edit my work is to read it out loud. I find this technique is helpful to avoid awkward-sounding and/or long sentences.

The objective of this assignment is to get ENGL 301 students acquainted with the 3 types of definitions and how to write a proper example of each one. For the purpose of this exercise, I have chosen to define the concept of weight in Physics. I will write a parenthetical, sentence, and expanded definition for weight. My target audience is the educated layperson. I will assume that my audience has some familiarity of Math, but no significant knowledge of Physics.

Parenthetical definition: A rectangular box has a mass of 100Kg, what is the weight (force exerted by gravity) of the box?

Sentence definition: Weight is the force produced by gravity on an object. The magnitude of this force is directly proportional to the mass of the object.

Expanded definition: In Physics, weight is defined as the force produced by gravity on a body, which should not be confused with an object’s mass. The latter is a measurement of the amount of matter in units of kilograms, while weight quantifies the effect of gravity on matter in units of Newtons (hyperphysics, 2016). The mathematical definition for weight (w) is the product of an object’s mass (m) times the acceleration of gravity (g):

w = m*g

For example, if a man has a mass of 70 Kg, what is his weight?

w = 70Kg * 9.81 m/s^2

w = 686.7 N

The previous example is very simple. A more realistic application of the weight formula is for calculating the apparent weight of a body. Apparent weight is the sum of weight produced by gravity plus the “false weight” induced by some external acceleration. You may recall this effect from going up and down on elevators:

W_apparent = m * (g * acceleration_elevator)

Newton’s third law of motion states that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction (NASA, 2016). On the surface of the Earth, the normal force counteracts weight (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Weight (mg) and normal force (N) acting on a box of mass (m) (wikimedia, 2016).

This fundamental relationship between weight and normal force is what keeps our feet on the ground without breaking through the floor.

Bibliography:

Mass and Weight. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2016, from http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mass.html

File:WeightNormal.svg. (2014, May 25). Retrieved September 26, 2016, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WeightNormal.svg

Newton’s Laws of Motion. (2015, May 05). Retrieved September 26, 2016, from https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/newton.html

Important: This post does not reflect the formatting of the Word version. Please find Word doc here: engl301-definitions-draft2

Link to peer’s review of my first draft: http://engl301.arts.ubc.ca/2016/09/28/review-of-samuel-navarros-assignment-1-3/

MEMORENDUM

To:                   Dr. Erika Paterson, Sessional Lecturer

From:              Samuel Andrés Navarro Leiva S.N.

Date:               September 18, 2016

Subject:          Brief Summary of My Application Letter

As requested in the in the English 301 1:2 Assignment, this memo gives a short summary of the application letter posted in my blog on September 14, 2016. Please find the full-length letter attached to this email.

Letter Summary

• I am a 4^th year Physics student at UBC.

• I wrote detailed reports and journal-style articles in my laboratory courses.

• I am an active member of the Undergraduate Physics Society.

• In my first co-op term, I became proficient working and communicating in a team environment.

• My most important strength as a writer is my ability to easily transfer my ideas into written form.

• My weakness as a writer is that I sometimes have difficulty using punctuation properly.

• My learning philosophy is learn by applying new concepts and ideas.

I hope you find my application letter satisfactory. If you have any suggestions or questions please let me know.

Enclosure: 301 Samuel Navarro Application letter

September 14^th, 2016

English 301 Technical Writing

University of British Columbia

Vancouver, BC

Dear Classmates,

Please consider my application to be a member of your writing team. I am in the 4^th year of my Physics major at UBC and have gained firsthand experience writing formal documents as well as working in teams.

The courses that interest me the most are those that allow me to directly experience physical phenomena. Such courses are Experimental Physics, Computational Physics, and my Electronics laboratory. In these courses, I performed various experiments followed by detailed reports on my findings. For example, for my Electronics laboratory final I constructed an electric guitar tuner. I documented each step of the building process and then handed in a journal-style article on the function of my device. The academic achievement I am most proud of is having secured a co-op position at Vision Critical, a successful Canadian software company. Here I gained real world experience working with teammates to achieve our goals. I also became skillful in both verbally communicating and instant messaging with my group.

I have been a member of the Undergraduate Physics Society (Physsoc) since 2013. My first role in this club was the Lecture Series Coordinator. I was responsible for contacting professionals in my field and inviting them to give lectures on their research. This task made me proficient in authoring formal correspondence. Furthermore, I am currently Physsoc’s Mentorship Coordinator. In this position, I manage the recruitment of 3^rd and 4^th year Physics majors who would like to become mentors to incoming 2^nd year students. To handle the enlistment of mentors and mentees, I wrote emails distributed to all Physics students. Thus, I am also practiced in peer-to-peer written communication.

My most important strength as a writer is my ability to easily transfer my ideas into written form. Additionally, I always self edit my work by reading it out loud multiple times. This helps me guarantee my ideas are understood clearly. That being said, English is not my mother tongue. I some times have difficulties with punctuation, as word-processing software does not always catch issues of this sort. Consequently, this may hinder–but never impede–my editing skills. My learning philosophy is that you must apply new concepts and skills in order to truly comprehend them. This is an effective learning method used in the sciences and I have integrated this into my learning style.

Thank you for reading through my application. I look forward to hearing from you to create a writing team. I may be reached via email at snavarroleiva@gmail.com or you can find me in the ENGL 301 Facebook group as Samuel Navarro.

Sincerely,

Samuel Andrés Navarro Leiva

Here is my Application letter in Word Doc. form: 301-samuel-navarro-application-letter

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