This page includes example of work I have completed in English 301
Definition
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.
Formal Report Proposal
To: UBC’s Undergraduate Physics Society
From: S. Parry
Date: October 7, 2016
Subject: Proposal for Strategies to Increase Number of Council Members
Introduction
Since my first year with the UBC Undergraduate Physics society in 2013, there have been inconsistencies in the membership numbers. For the purposes of this proposal, when referring to an active member, it will mean a member that regularly attends events or frequently uses the study space provided by the society. When I first joined in 2013 there were less than 10 active members in second year and third year combined, compared to the 20 students in fourth year alone. This reversed itself in my fourth year, with the minority of members being in upper-year. When learning about the membership statistics of previous years it appears that there have been periods of high member counts followed by periods of low member counts.
Statement of Problem
The lack of active members for UBC’s Undergraduate Physics Society creates issues when council positions need to be filled. There have been years in the past for which council members have had to fill multiple roles. As council positions for the Undergraduate Physics Society can be time consuming and can demand a large volume of work, holding multiple positions can affect the quality of work. The overload can lead to less events being run, or the events not living up to their full potential. This in turn can affect membership numbers negatively and continue the cycle of membership inconsistencies.
Proposed Solution
The problem of inconsistent membership numbers could by anticipation the wants and needs of prospective members. This would then solve the associated problem of finding council members. In previous years, academic help has mainly been offered to first year physics students. However, a lot of first year students do not continue to take physics courses throughout the rest of their degree. Therefore, they have little interest in a Physics Society. By offering more academic events and assistance to second years, this could capture members earlier than previously and have them continue to return to the society in later years. Another possible solution is to run not only the events that are traditional, but events that would attract prospective members.
Scope
To assess whether this solution would increase the active membership of the Undergraduate Physics Society and to increase the effectiveness of the proposed solution, I will consider the following:
- Whether the years of decreased memberships correspond to years with decreased enrollments.
- If there are any common events between the years that have higher memberships.
- What encouraged the current members to become involved with the society?
- What services or events would encourage non-members to pursue membership?
- Whether a person who becomes a member in second year will continue their membership in consecutive years? Will they then become involved with the council for the society?
- Whether members can be better informed about the variety of council positions available?
Methods
To aid in researching the necessary information, I will conduct interviews with long term council members and staff within the Physics department that are involved with the society. I will look at past membership numbers to observe trends. As well as these, I will create a survey to distribute to current members for information, and another to prospective members.
My Qualifications
I have been involved with the Undergraduate Physics Society for 4 years in different positions. I am therefore familiar with the workings of the council. I have seen a variety of events during my time, some of which have been very successful and others that could have been improved. Also, as a fourth year Physics student I am accustomed to collecting and analyzing large amounts of data. This will be useful when reviewing the surveys and membership enrollments.
Conclusion
By researching and addressing the issues mentioned previously, I aim to create a solution to increase the number of active members in the Physics Society, and therefore prospective council members. With your approval, I shall begin this research.
Peer Review of Formal Report Proposal
To: Samuel Andres Navarro Leiva
From: Sarah Parry
Date: 11 October, 2016
Subject: Peer Review of Formal Report Proposal
I found your Formal Report Proposal interesting to read, especially as it concerns a problem that I have personally been affected by. Your report was well written and provided a good amount of detail about the problem and your strategy. Below is my review of the proposal and my recommendations.
Organization and Layout
The organization of your proposal is very well done. The bold titles make the different sections of your proposal clear and easy to locate. Your paragraphs are a not too long. I noticed that in the team forum blog the spaces between lines in your sections were quite large, specifically in your bullet points in Scope. However, when I looked at your attached word document this was not the case, so this could be due to the line space settings in the blog post.
Grammar and Spelling
I appreciated your use of grammar, and can see no general ways to improve on this. There were a few issues with spelling though. Several times in your report, specifically in the Introduction and Scope, you use rout instead of route. This would not have shown on a spelling check as rout is a word. However, I believe in this case you mean route. You also switch between your spelling of travelling and traveling. Both are correct spellings, but you should choose one spelling and be consistent with it throughout your proposal. Other than these two, I did not notice any other spelling errors.
Introduction
Your introduction gives a nice background to your chosen problem, as well as your experience of it. Overall, it has good sentence structure. There are just a few points that affect readability. In the sentence that starts “Most all of the previous examples usually…” you should remove the words “all” and “usually”. I do not think this will affect the meaning of the sentence but will help remove extra words and therefore make it easier to read. I would also suggest removing “i.e. students & staff”. I think this can be taken out as the problem does affect all pedestrians and you go into further detail later about how it affects students and staff specifically later in the proposal.
Statement of Problem
I like how you go into further detail of how this problem affects the people that spend most of their days on campus. Your use of recent examples of the construction that has affected pedestrians is very useful. The only suggestion I have is that in the last line I think you indicate that you will only be mentioning some of the examples, not all, when you say “For example…” so the amongst others at the end is redundant.
Scope
The way you have organized this sections makes it easy to read and understand your thought process. It also goes into a good amount of detail for each of the points. Maybe you could also consider whether students and staff consider that the final product of the construction justifies the disruption.
Methods
A thorough description of how you plan to gather your research. I think that this section does not need to be two paragraphs.
Limitations
I understand the limitations you have set for yourself and why you set them. However, as a fourth-year Physics Student, I only have one course that is not in Hennings and therefore do not travel across campus very often. My concern is that if this is the case for the majority Physics students your data will not truly reflect how most students or staff would feel about the problem. This could be in an issue particularly when considering the inconvenience caused by having classes across campus. If you chose to stay with just Physics students, you could ask where they have classes and if their routes go through construction to help alleviate this inconsistency.
I hope that you find my review useful when editing your report proposal. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.