Monthly Archives: October 2016

I found creating the LinkedIn profile difficult, but I expected that. I have always found it a challenge creating resumes and cover letters, and was not surprised that this was the case for the profile.  I find it hard anticipating the correct way to present myself for potential employers. However, I found the tips that LinkedIn gave very useful, especially the setup which could be done in the order suggested by LinkedIn. The research on LinkedIn best practices was also very helpful, and I plan on applying those tips in the future. I do believe that as I continue to improve my profile it will become a very useful tool for professional networking.

Once I knew the conditions for the Formal Report Proposal it was quite fun to write. I became very interested in my topic as it is directly related to something I am passionate about. I had never written a proposal in that form before, so it was very useful having the information from the textbook. I am very happy to have done this assignment as I believe it is a very useful skill to have. I know that being able to write a proposal will be important for my future career. I am at a stand still with my formal report. Thanks partly to the outline, I have most of the Formal Report sketched out. Once I am able to conduct the interviews, I can start analyzing the data. This will be the next step I will have to complete so that I can complete the report. I am slightly nervous about writing the report, because it is the long report I will have ever written based entirely off of my own research.

I appreciated completing the several types of peer reviews that I have done since the last reflection blog. Thanks to the feedback from my peers, I have started considering things more as I write, rather than only when reviewing my work. For example, as I am doing my first draft I will look at my sentence lengths, which I would not have considered before. I have learned that I tend to make a lot of similar mistakes in my writing. In future writing, I will have to keep a closer eye on those things. I had a hard time completing my first peer review. I followed some advice I was given by Erika Paterson on the next review I completed. I found that this new way of organizing the review helped me analyze the work. I am still finding peer-reviewing very hard, but I hope that  my partners find that my work has improved and is useful.

I found that writing the three kinds of definitions was very useful. It highlighted the differences between them and the situations when each would be appropriate. I believe that this will help increase the quality of my writing in many areas, as well as my ability to tailor my writing to specific audiences. I noted that when I was writing my expanded definition I used parenthetical definitions several times. I realized that this is something I have frequently done without thinking about it. Due to this assignment, I can now determine whether my use of parenthetical definitions is correct and suitable.

I found the peer editing harder than I expected. Not only because of having to examine someone else’s work, but also because my partner, Samuel, and I had approached the assignment in different ways. When reviewing, I first read the assignment and noted only the errors that interrupted my reading. Then I reread it paying attention to the finer details. This allowed me to consider specific areas for improvements that did not affect the overall readability of the work. This technique actually made me consider attempting this with my own work in the future.

I appreciated having my own work peer-reviewed. This gave me insight into my work in ways that I did not consider myself. I found that I had gotten so caught up in describing my process that I had forgotten to simplify terms that may not be common knowledge. I did not notice this myself, which I think is because I am already used to seeing the terms on a regular basis and communicating with people who know them. I know now that I must be more careful with this issue in the future. Due to Samuel’s comments  on my citation style, we ended up having a discussion about different techniques I could use when citing sources. I found it very interesting to hear about how my citation style had affected his reading of my assignment.

I found the peer review more useful than the review I had done of my work. Samuel was able to notice things that I wouldn’t have considered or even noticed. I also have learnt that the way I review the work of others could be very important to consider when editing my own work. I think the techniques I learnt in this unit will help me improve my writing and editing in the future.

Introduction

The criteria of this assignment is to chose a term within my discipline and provide a parenthetical definition, sentence definition, and expanded definition. The objectives for this assignment are to understand the need for defining terms in technical writing, differentiate between the ways of defining terms, and learn how to use them appropriately. For this assignment it was assumed that the reader would have a basic knowledge of scientific terms such as electron and photon.

Parenthetical definition

The photoelectric effect (electron ejection caused by light) created doubt about the theory that light only behaved like a wave.

Sentence Definition

The photoelectric effect is the phenomena that occurs when an electron is ejected from a material after it is exposed to light.  If the energy that the electron absorbs from the photon is large enough, the electron will be ejected.

Expanded Definition

History

The photoelectric effect was first observed by Heinrich Hertz in 1887 (“Photoelectric Effect”).  The Photoelectric Effect describes how Hertz saw that ultraviolet light changed the voltage for which sparking took place between two metal electrodes (an electrical conductor). In 1902, Philipp Lenard showed the relationship between light and electricity; when a metal is lit electrically charged particles (electrons) are emitted (“Photoelectric Effect”). This event of light illuminating a material and photoelectrons being emitted is known as the photoelectric effect.

Relation to Light

It was expected that the energy caused by the movement of the electron emitted by the effect would by proportional to the intensity of the light used, however this was found not to be the case (“Photoelectric Effect”). It is proportional to the frequency of the light (which determines its colour), and intensity determines the number of electrons that is emitted (“Photoelectric Effect”).

Diagrams of the effect

The image below represents the photoelectric effect. The image is of different frequencies of light being shone at a metal plate (Elert). The light with higher frequencies produce photoelectrons with higher kinetic energy than light with low frequency does (Elert).

Figure 1: three experiments using lights of different frequency (Elert). 

Uses

The photoelectric effect has a variety of uses in lab settings, as well in industry. A device that utilizes the photoelectric effect is the photodiode. Photodiodes can detect light and measure its intensity, as well as turn light into electrical energy (“Photoelectric Effect,”). Some examples of the applications of photodiodes are described by Britannica as pollution monitoring, imaging, solar cells, and fibre optics (“Photoelectric Effect”). Automatic doors can use photodiodes as their sensor. A light is shone at a photodiode and when that light is interrupted, usually by a person walking through it, the photodiode sends a signal that opens the door (“Principle of Sensor Operation”).

References

“Photoelectric Effect.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. https://www.britannica.com/science/photoelectric-effect Accessed: 26 September 2016.

“Principle of Sensor Operation” OPTEX. n.d. Web. http://www.optex.co.jp/as/eng/infrared/principle.html Accessed: 26 September 2016.

Elert, Glenn. “Photoelectric Effect.” The Physics Hypertextbook. n.d. Web. http://physics.info/photoelectric/ Accessed: 26 September 2016.

 

File of the assignment:

sarah-parry-definition-assignment

 

Samuel Navarro’s Review of my assignment:

http://engl301.arts.ubc.ca/2016/09/28/peer-review-of-sarah-parrys-definitions-assignment/