February 21, 2018 Formatted: Space After: 0 pt, Line spacing: single

Dear Masha,
This paper covers what an ideal physics course contains in terms of form of writing.
When writing, I came across a few significant moments. During the interview with my
colleague, I realized that his response differs from Potter’s findings in his article. It was
particularly interesting to come to this realization during the interview, and I began paying
attention to my colleague’s answers as they related to Potter’s article and how I could analyze it
in the paper.
In this paper, I chose the topics of each paragraph deliberately. I begin with an analysis of
a physics course in general and determine the forms of writing commonly used. I do this to
introduce the reader to a physics course and how it functions. Then, I dive into Potter’s research
and discuss his findings as they are straight forward conceptually. I move on the interview which
contains more conceptually challenging material about physics courses and how they should
operate. Now that I have analyzed my two sources, I compare them as they are different but still
have fundamental similarities. I also chose my quotes specifically to highlight important ideas
that I wanted to analyze. The most important quotes were from the interview as they show the
importance of certain forms of teaching in physics. Additionally, I decided to not use complex
lexis used in physics or to assume than the reader would have a general idea of physics. I
attempted to keep the needed knowledge about physics required to read and understand the paper
at a basic level.
If I had more time to expand this paper, I would interview my Physics 21 professor. The
interview would have the same structure as the interview with my colleague; although, it would
also be altered slightly to ask the professor questions appropriate to him rather than use questions
meant for a student. This new information would be interesting, especially when comparing to
the other two sources. It could provide more insight into the inner workings of a physics course
and the struggles a professor goes through to maintain an appropriate balance in the course.
When writing, I always question if my evidence clearly supports my claim. It is difficult
to know when I have analyzed the evidence to the point where the way it relates to the claim is
clear. Also, do my claims for each paragraph make sense? I often write with the end goal in
mind, so with the whole picture in mind a paragraph makes perfect logical sense; however, when
reading through the paper, it might be confusing, and it does not appear to relate directly to the
claim. Finally, I often find myself glossing over minor details in a way that might make the
reader confused. I am concerned about providing enough detail or explanation to make the
concepts I am analyzing clear. If you could focus on these aspects of my paper and give me
feedback on them, I would greatly appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Dylan Dodge
 Optimizing Teaching Physics

Physics and math are rarely considered when discussing writing. The most often

examples used forto study writing come from English and history, but math and physics have

their own special forms of writing that most people would never consider. Physics uses multiple

forms of writing to clearly express ideas. In a physics course, using particular forms of writing

can and to enhance the effectiveness of the course material. In a college classroom, some The

physics professors generally tailors a course around his or hertheir teaching style. Some

professors by will constantly usinge examples to work through a problem using the concept he

or shethey taught. while Oothers will choose to focus on the concept and strictly defining define

it. These changes approaches affect the students’ learning the material and can make the course

much harder or easier to understand. By examining Physics [1/2/3?] literacy practices and

conducting an interview with […], I argue that tTo teach physics effectively, professors need to Commented [MOU1]: This phrase gives you an
opportunity to briefly say what type of research you’ve
done. Moreover, it helps to signify that this is your
consider the different ways they can alter the course and how those alterations affect the
argument.

student’s understanding of the course.
To understand how to optimally teach physics, the different ways ofto teaching must be
considered. Through the observations of the undergraduate physics course, it is apparent that
dDifferent ways of teaching correspond to different forms of writing. [Among theme are….]
Physicists use definitions to describe a natural occurrence. Definitions make life much easier in
Commented [MOU2]: How does this point relate to
writing?
Commented [MOU3]: As you can see, I combined four
sentences into two. You tend to write short and clear
sentences. And it’s a great skill. But sometimes it leads you
to repetitions or unnecessary information.
Commented [MOU4]: I’m not sure about this sentence. I
feel like the second sentence is a stronger topic sentence
than the first one. The first one seems to be too general.

physics because instead of taking the time to describe what is occurring, scholars use a single

word or phrase can be used to covey the same idea. Equations contain definitions by setting a
mathematical phrase equal to a variable. By doing so, it is easier to solve a problem when there is

a reoccurring phrase; instead of rewriting the phrase, it could be could be referred to as “a” or a

Greek letter. In addition, vVariables can also be viewed as a form of writing and can be

considered a subgenre of definitions. Variables are characters or symbols that refer to a phrase or

value. It takes the place of something, and they are almost exclusively used in equations. Further,

Equations are the math behind the physical situations that are analyzed in physics and are the

most common form of writing found in physics. Equations are a method to get answers and

follow special rules to do so. Finally, lLaws are what tie equations and real-world situations

together, relating them through phrases and sentences. Most laws can be rewritten in the form of

an equation rather than words to make them more applicable when solving problems. Problems

or examples are commonly used as well, but some professors tend to not do them in class and

rather focus purely on content. Examples are important because they have the students go

through the thought process of solving a situation using the concepts learned in class. All these

types of writing are used in a physics course and are practically necessary to teach effectively.

Physics pProfessors have complete control over the course and therefore complete

control over all the forms of writing using in lecture. They have the liberty to only writing
equations up on a board with no context if they so please. Of course, that would be
Commented [MOU5]: This sentence does not reflect
what you’re talking about in the paragraph. Read this
paragraph again and briefly write what it is about. Then
revise this sentence and make it your topic sentence.

counterproductive to their goals so most contain include all the normalother traditional forms of

writing stated previously. However, the distribution of the forms can differ greatly between

professors and courses. To determine the best distribution, a study was conducted at UC Davis

that compared bioscience students who took a traditional course versus those who took the

revised CLASP course. The CLASP course specifically focused “on sense-making by the Commented [MOU6]: What is this? When you use an
abbreviation for the first time, write the full name of the
course in parenthesis.
students during the 5 h per week discussion/labs in which the students take part in activities
emphasizing peer-peer discussions, argumentation, and presentations of ideas” (Potter 153). The

idea of focusing on an interactive setting while solving examples and problems is not a new

concept. It has often been thought to improve student learning and Potter proves this by stating,

Bioscience students graduating in the years 1998 and 1999 had taken either the CLASP

series or Physics 5, so for these years, it is possible to compare the UDGPA across the

two populations. The results of these calculations are given in Table II and show that the

students who took the CLASP series had higher UDGPAs. (Potter 159)

Because the students spend so much time in discussion or lab settings, there are only one 80

minutes lectures per week, and in lecture, concepts and models are taught with no examples

because the discussions already cover that aspect. Potter’s research concluded that the revised

coursed provide an improved way of teaching physics. Students who take a course with more

interaction and critical thinking tend to test better and learn the concepts at a higher level than

students in traditional class settings.

The optimal physics course could depend on the major of the students. Since Potter only

studied bioscience majors, I interviewed a colleague in my Physics 21 course who gave me an

insight into ….. According to …, Physics majors might prefer to learn in different ways than

other majors as they enjoy and generally have a better understanding of physics and its

applications (citation). Physics 21 is specifically for physics majors, so the needs for this course

might differ from the course studied in Potter’s paper. In Physics 21, there are three 50 minutes

lectures for teaching concepts and one 50 minutes discussion for interactive problem solving. In

this system, there is more lecture time than discussion, so more concepts can be covered, but

examples must also have to be done within the lecture. Additionally, the whole lecture is usually

interactive as the professor goes through the examples. From the interview, it could be
determined that examples were necessary to appropriately teach physics concepts. My colleague

stated,

(Without examples), it would make it (lecture) confusing because although an equation

can show you how to do a problem, without understanding the equation and what its

ramifications are, any out of the box application is impossible. (Mohanty)

Going through examples and working through the mental process of solving a problem with a

new concept during lecture is incredibly helpful in understanding the applications of this new

concept. Without them, the concepts become foreign ideas with no foundation in reality which

conflicts with the whole purpose of physics. My colleague also mentioned that having

demonstrations is a great way to show new concepts because at first it might be difficult to

visualize what the concept means physically. When asked how he would alter our current course

to make it more effective, he answered,

I feel that having daily lectures would make understanding concepts much easier; Having

labs would also add to the 'concretization' of concepts. (Mohanty)

Lectures are more important than the discussion sections for understanding concepts. Adding a

lab to the course would allows students to experiment and get a stronger physical understanding

of the concepts taught in lecture which would be beneficial when solving a problem since there

would already be an expectation for the answer before any calculations. Overall, an interactive

lecture where examples and demonstrations are done along with a discussion and lab session to

cement the knowledge learned in lecture would be the ideal Physics 21 course.

Comparing the two sources, it is foundI found that an interactive setting is critical if not

crucial for an effective physics course. However, it seems that the sources differ over the ratio
between discussion and lecture times. Potter found that an increase in discussion time versus

lecture time caused an increase in student understanding; however, this finding does not consider

an interactive lecture that is experienced in Physics 21 and instead assumes that a lecture is not

interactive. My colleague favored the idea of a lab section and using demonstration in lecture to

show physical applications of the concepts covered, and Potter’s research provides support to

this idea as the discussion sections in his paper were labs occasionally. However, my colleague

also prefers more lecture time rather than a lab or discussion. Both sources favor interactive

settings and feel they provide a better learning experience but differ when it comes to more

discussion sessions or more lectures.

Now to translate all the features into forms of writing that are required for an effective

physics course. For a lecture or discussion section to be interactive, there must be examples to

promote conversation. These examples are solved with equations, and the equations contain

variables which are place holders for other values or phrases making it a definition. These

definitions come from laws that have been previously been found to always be true under a set of

conditions. An ideal physics course must contain examples, equations, variables, definitions, and

laws. As it turns out, the ideal physics course contains all forms of writing involved with physics

curses. The characteristic that makes a course ideal is the ratio of each form used. In the ideal

course, examples will be the focus along with variables and equations because they are necessary

for solving the examples. The laws and definitions are not explicitly written with each example,

so they fall behind the previously mentioned forms. Laws can be written as equations and are

used for examples and problems whereas definitions are generally not written unless the concept

is explicitly being taught. To teach the concepts, equations, laws, and definitions are mainly

used, and without laws all equations in physics are meaningless. The forms of writing, in
depreciating amount of ideal use, is as follows: Equations, variables, examples, laws, and

definitions. Although equations and variables are more commonly used than laws. Laws still

hold more importance, and this importance must be considered when teaching to properly teach

the concepts being covered. That being said, a course should be based off solving examples

using concepts and laws to have the greatest impact on the students. Commented [MOU7]: Condense this paragraph by
combining sentences.
I feel like you can substitute some passive voice
9/10 constructions with active voice verbs by using “professors”
as subjects.

Dylan,

You wrote an excellent essay on literacy practices in a physics class. Your narrative is

organized and each paragraph reflects your argument. Here are some areas that you might work

on during the revision process:

1. As I said in class, unlike most people, your sentences are short and concise. If you use Formatted: List Paragraph, Numbered + Level: 1 +
Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment:
short sentences one after another, one after another, your narrative becomes Left + Aligned at: 0.5" + Indent at: 0.75"

“chopped” and monotonous. Try to vary the length of sentences and see how your

narrative flows.

2. The equation/variables/laws/definitions paragraphs need work (we talked about it in

class).

3. You tend to use a lot of passive voice which is ok for a physics paper but, as a reader,

I want to see more actors (professors and students) in your essay.

Otherwise, great job!! Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt,
Font color: Text 1
Formatted: Indent: First line: 0"
Worked Cited
Potter, Wendell, et al. “Sixteen Years of Collaborative Learning through Active Sense-Making in

Physics (CLASP) at UC Davis.” American Journal of Physics, vol. 82, no. 2, 2014, pp.

153–163.

Mohanty, Sidd. Personal interview. 11 Feb. 2018.

Working Draft
 Different types of writing can be found everywhere. They differ greatly from one group

to another and even differ within subgroups. Using different forms of writing is incredibly

important for being able to effectively communicate. Most examples of writing are usually found

in history classes and English papers, but math and physics have their own special forms of

writing that most people never consider. Physics uses multiple forms of writing to clearly

express ideas. In a physics classroom, using particular forms of writing can enhance the

effectiveness of the course. The professor generally controls the different forms of writing in a

course to tailor it around his or her teaching style. Some professors will constantly use examples

to work through a problem using the concept he or she is teaching while others will choose to

focus ono the concept and strictly defining it. These changes affect the students learning the

material and can make the course much harder or easier to understand. To teach physics

effectively, professors need to consider the different ways they can alter the course and how

those alterations affect the student’s understanding of the course.

To understand how to optimally teach physics, the different ways to teach must be

considered. Different ways of teaching correspond to different forms of writing. One form often

used is definitions which are used in physics to describe a natural occurrence. They usually use

words to describe the topic and have very concise wording. Definitions make life much easier in

physics because it makes referring to a topic easier than the alternative of describing what is

occurring. Definitions can also be used with equations by setting a mathematical phrase equal to

a variable. By doing so, it is easier to solve a problem when there is a reoccurring phrase because

instead of rewriting the phrase, it could be could be referred to as “a” or a smiley face. It does not

matter what the placeholder for the phrase is as long as the user is consistent throughout his or

her work. Variables can also be viewed as a form of writing and can be considered a subgenre of
definitions. Variables are characters or symbols that refer to a different phrase or value. It takes

the place of something, and they are almost exclusively used in equations. Of course, physics

would be nothing without equations, so they must be included here. Equations are the math

behind the physical situations that are analyzed in physics. They are a method to get answers and

follow special rules to do so. Laws are what tie equations and real-world situations together,

relating them through phrases and sentences. Most laws can be rewritten in the form of an

equation rather than words to make them more usable when solving problems. Problems or

examples are commonly used as well, but some professors tend to not do them in class and rather

focus purely on content. Examples are important because they have the students go through the

thought process of solving a situation by using the concepts used in class. All these types of

writing are used in a physics course and are practically necessary to teach effectively.

Professors have complete control over the course and therefore complete control over all

the forms of writing using in lecture. They have the liberty to only writing equations up on a

board with no context if they so please. Of course, that would be counter productive to their

goals so most contain all the normal forms of writing stated previously. However, the

distribution of the forms can differ greatly between professors and courses. To determine the best

distribution, a study was conducted at UC Davis that compared bioscience students who took a

traditional course versus those who took the revised CLASP course. The CLASP course

specifically focused “on sense-making by the students during the 5 h per week discussion/labs in

which the students take part in activities emphasizing peer-peer discussions, argumentation, and

presentations of ideas” (Potter 153). The idea of focusing on an interactive setting while solving

examples and problems is not a new concept, but Potter’s paper shows that taking a course

focusing on these aspects improved the students’ understanding of the content. Because the
students spend so much time in discussion or lab settings, there are only one 80 minutes lectures

per week, and in lecture, concepts and models are taught with no examples because the

discussions already cover that aspect.

The optimal physics course could depend on the major of the students along with the

student themselves as people learn in different ways. I interviewed a colleague in my Physics 21

course. This course is specifically for physics majors, so the needs for this course might differ

from the course studied in Potter’s paper. In Physics 21, there are three 50 minutes lectures for

teaching concepts and one 50 minutes discussion for interactive problem solving. In this system,

there is more lecture time than discussion, so more concepts can be covered, but examples must

also have to be done within the lecture. Additionally, the whole lecture is usually interactive as

the professor goes through the examples. From the interview, it could be determined that

examples were necessary to appropriately teach physics concepts. My colleague stated,

(Without examples), it would make it confusing because although an equation can show

you how to do a problem, without understanding the equation and what its ramifications

are, any out of the box application is impossible. (Mohanty)

Going through examples and working through the mental process of solving a problem with a

new concept during lecture is incredibly helpful in understanding the applications of this new

concept. My colleague also mentioned that having demonstrations is a great way to show new

concepts because at first it might be difficult to visualize what the concept means physically. If

he were to alter our current course to make it more effective, there would be daily lectures about

an hour long, the current discussion section, and a lab section. Lectures more important than the

interactive sessions in understanding the concepts and having a firm mental grasp on them, so

more time should be spent in lecture. Adding a lab to the course would allow students to
experiment and get a stronger physical understanding of the concepts taught in lecture which

would be beneficial when solving a problem since there would already be an expectation for the

answer before any calculations. Overall, an interactive lecture where examples and

demonstrations are done along with a discussion and lab session to cement the knowledge

learned in lecture would be the ideal Physics 21 course.

Comparing the two sources, it is found that an interactive setting is critical if not crucial

to have a interactive setting for an effective physics course. However, it seems that the sources

differ over the ratio between discussion and lecture times. Potter found that an increase in

discussion time versus lecture time caused an increase in student understanding; however, this

finding does not take into account an interactive lecture that is experienced in Physics 21 and

instead assumes that a lecture is not interactive. My colleague favored the idea of a lab section

and using demonstration in lecture to show physical applications of the concepts covered, and

Potter’s research provides support to this idea as the discussion sections in his paper were labs

occasionally. Now to translate all the features into forms of writing that are required for an

effective physics course. For a lecture or discussion section to be interactive, there must be

examples. These examples are solved with equations, and the equations contain variables which

are place holders for other values or phrases making it a definition. These definitions come from

laws that have been previously been found to always be true under a set of conditions. An ideal

physics course then must contain examples, equations, variables, definitions, and laws. As it

turns out, the ideal physics course contains all forms of writing found in physics courses. The

only characteristic that makes an ideal course effective is the ratio than each form is used. In the

ideal course, examples will be the focus along with variables and equations because they are

necessary for solving the examples. The laws and definitions are not explicitly written with each
example, so they fall behind the previously mentioned forms. Laws can be writing as equations

and are used to for some examples and problems whereas definitions are generally not written

unless the concept is explicitly being taught. To teach the concepts, equations, laws, and

definitions are mainly used, and without laws all equations in physics are meaningless.

Therefore, the forms of writing in a list of deprecating importance goes as follows: laws,

equations, variables, examples, definitions. By following this list of importance, a physics course

can be efficient and effective.

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