Assignment One Reflection

I am proud of many parts of my paper, I enjoyed being able to perform the experiments in
which I had observed. As well I really enjoyed being able to interview my professor, it was
very interesting getting to know what got him interested in the Chemistry field and what kind
of research really interested him. I was really looking forward to interviewing Dr. Cooper
because his teaching styles reminds me of my professor I had for General Chemistry 1 and
after I had that first Chemistry class at university I knew I was in the wrong major and made
the switch to Chemistry. If I had more time to work on this paper, I would have really
enjoyed to interview my laboratory instructor, Dr. Murphy. He is such a brilliant teacher, yet
his teaching strategies differ greatly from Dr. Coopers so I really would have enjoyed
getting to know more about his Chemistry background and teachings. As well I believe it is
really neat having a professor teach the laboratories, as in earlier Chemistry courses the labs
are generally taught by graduate students. As well if I had more time whilst writing the paper
I would have enjoyed going through my paper with a peer in order to check for any
grammatical errors. Overall I am pleased with the outcome of my paper, as it is very detail
oriented in regards to Analytical Chemistry.
I am grateful for all of the comments which my group had to give me. I know I am not the
strongest writer, so I will take all the feedback necessary in order to create a strong paper. I
did appreciate their input in telling me what would make my paper more reader friendly to
those who are not familiar with the Chemistry terms and references I used. For example one
of my group members suggested adding a definitions section at the beginning of the paper, so
that the readers could better understand what was taking place during the observations. I
thought that was a brilliant idea, as I am sure not all of my peers are familiar with some of the
terms which were being used. As well another one of my group members suggested that I
add in my results from the observations I wrote about. I thought that would be a great way
for my peers to take a look at what data I was able to come up with from each experiment.
I believe that I went above and beyond by posting results that I was able to obtain and
calculate from the observations that took place. As well the reports contain background
information of the observation in which took place, as well as data tables containing the
results. I believe with adding these into the report, it can help my peers get a more in depth
understanding of the experiments other than just reading over the observations I have
recorded.
A few SLOs which were used during my observation paper were Rhetorical Knowledge,
Knowledge of Conventions as well as Critical Reflection. For Rhetorical Knowledge I
believe a good example was the interview with Dr. Cooper, because it gives the audience a
professors background interest in the topic of Analytical Chemistry I believe this can help
give the audience a better understanding of the observations. As well Knowledge of
Conventions was used in my paper, and for this I gave an example of the calibration of a
volumetric flask. This is a strong example for the Chemistry field, as before any instrument
is calibrated it must be cleaned with no leftover residue on the glassware or else the data will
become skewed. Lastly Critical Reflection was present in the paper for the calibration of the
glassware. This was the example used, as it is a common misconception that the volume
labelled on the glassware is exact when in fact it is not so we must calibrate the glassware
to get the accurate volume.

Overall, I believe for writing my first observation I was able to learn a lot and improve my
writing abilities along the way which is very encouraging, From what I was able to learn
from our first assignment I hope to take with me to assignment two in order to create a well
composed research paper.