Prospectus Workshop Summary

I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the prospectuses and actually learned a lot. Most of the writings were technical but easy to understand through clear and concise explanations on the topics they’ve chosen. Some of the prospectus that I read made me think about the topic and cannot help but wanting to learn. I definitely like reading my reviews and comments to my prospectus. A healthy dose of constructive criticism does tend to help you learn a thing or two. Without a doubt, I have learned how to write better now then I ever had before. At first, I thought the online class would be easy but it proved to be difficult because it is hard to keep up with what assignments are actually do but I have learned so much from taking this class. Even more so, I have learned from my classmates and reviewing their work. Reviewing all prospectuses has helped me understand that I am on the right track of doing things. I have learned that everyone has different writing styles and its important for me to understand that because I am finally comfortable with my writing style. It helps me move forward and become a better writer. That said, writing is not without rules, as you follow the rules, you should be fine. Now, I can look forward to be a better researcher as well as a better writer.

#5 State of Research Prospectus

For the past couple months, I have been mulling over what kind of research should I do in the field of atmospheric science. I kept thinking what are my interests and what do I see myself doing. It has to be something that I enjoy and not minding the hard work behind it. Honestly, this literature review is a stepping-stone in finding what I want to do with my life. Since the snowstorm, I have notice my fascination with snow and ice so I looked further into it and discovered the field of cryosphere – the study of the Earth’s frozen environment. All these questions popped in my head like what are the dangers of global warming if Earth’s cryosphere were to shrink, what causes these global warming but the main concern of global warming is the rising of global sea level if and when the ice sheets melts. That’s where the research is going. Just recently, I found out that the largest mass of ice is at the West Antarctic Ice sheet. It holds so much ice and snow that it literally can transform the geography of our planet that we know today. Eureka! I want to know what would happen if the West Antarctica Ice Sheet melts. I think this is my experiment.

Truth be told, the research behind all this is very overwhelmingly difficult because it is extremely involved. The research needed to gather information comes from various sources in not only atmospheric science but other fields of study such as geology, geomorphology, oceanography, geographic information systems, remote sensing, chemistry and so on and so forth. This literature review is definitely an eye-opener because not everyone can do it and it takes work and training to do this sort of thing. This will not be easy but it will be fun learning experience!

#4 Open Topic

I am going to be talking about the move. My wife and I just moved into a new place with her parents last weekend. They had to move into a new place before March 1st because that is when their lease was up. We all moved from a townhouse to a split-level home not far from each other. It is about 10 minutes apart.

I have to say that the move was pretty grueling because the stairs at the townhouse were very steep and plentiful. I hated those stairs and hated it even more when I had to continually move heavy boxes and furniture up and down the stairs. It took us four days to complete the move. Wednesday and Thursday, My wife and I moved our stuff to the new place. Friday and Saturday, we moved all the furniture and her parent’s stuff to the new place. I was so exhausted from the moving and I had exams coming up. Great, physically and mentally exhausting. It had to be done though. I am just glad the week is over and spring break is finally here. I really need it.

The house is a split-level home that was built back in 1965. It is very old and needed a lot of work but thankfully my mother-in-law and my wife did all the cleaning and painting. The all the carpets were taken out and replaced. The upstairs portion of the house has wooden floors throughout. The stairs on the split-level is amazing because it is only few steps!! How awesome is that?? I think I am going to like it here more than the townhouse.

#3 Reading the Literature Review

The literature review that I have picked out provided me of a clear idea of what I really want to talk about for my research prospectus. My literature review mentioned a lot about the concerns of cryosphere but what I really want to talk about is the implications of sea level changes if the ice from Greenland and Antarctica melts. This literature review proves to be very informative in explaining the implications of sea level rising if melting from a specific region of Antarctica, known as West Antarctica Ice Sheet or WAIS for short.

This literature review was very similar to the article that I have read for my anatomy of a scholarly journal. In fact, this literature review is a combination of research and clear evidences of what will happen if the sea level rises. It even mention the danger of Washington D.C. if this occurs. The area of Washington D.C. would be underwater as well as the majority of the eastern board of United States as well.

I will be honest, I was a finance major so writing research papers and reviewing articles and researching for sources were not the norm. However, I have written a business proposal about creating a new and healthier food choice for Wendy’s Franchise. This involved in researching for problems with obesity in America and why this new and healthy food choice will benefit both the business and the consumers. So this research prospectus will be similar to business proposal but with other differences. It involves more sources, more research and even more in depth conceptual thinking when writing something that pertains to any field of science.

#2 Open Topic

I am going to be talking about my brother, Gib. Also I will be talking about him finding his father’s side of the family. First, I will explain to everyone that my brother and I are 7 years apart and that we both have different fathers. Each of our fathers had walked out on us. It did not bother me as much as it bothered him. Several years ago, my brother had found out that his father had passed away and this troubled him greatly as he never got a chance to meet his father.

Recently he decided to do some research and find some family members on his father’s side to finally understand who his father was. With a lot of research and a lot of luck, he has found several of them. One was a step -sister of his father who happened to live in the same town that we grew up in. They spoke over the phone and will meet soon. Then he also found out that his father’s real sister lives an hour away from him so he decided to give her a call as well. She was very happy to hear from him and wanted to meet with him as soon as possible. She has children and one of them I remember is name is Tyler. Tyler and my brother has been talking to each other on the phone, facebooking each other, and finding out about each other.

This is all overwhelming and exciting for my brother. He has told me everything and wanted to make sure if I was ok with him telling me all this and I was. I am happy for him and I hope he finds what he is looking for and finds peace knowing his father. It seems to me that these people are very accepting of him and that’s amazing for him.

#3 (this is not a freewrite) Types of Writing in your Field

The writing styles in the field of atmospheric science are a lot like the research articles that we see in this class. It is a lot of observations, hypothesis, and data writing to be done during the course of a specific research. More specifically, the research article that I picked from JSTOR, an Internet database from George Mason University library is a fine example of the research writing in my field. It was about the instability of the glacial climate in the model of the ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere system. It gave numerous hypothesis but more of the feedbacks from their model systems to back up their research and explain what happened in the past and what might be the cause of these occurrences to change. They also gathered information from other resources in their field to see any correlations to their work. When writing something pertaining to atmospheric research, they have to be carefully scrutinized and accurate as much as possible to be credible and taken seriously. It is serious work!

1 Hour of Uninterrupted Visualization

Today, on February 19, I decided to take the time to do one-hour of uninterrupted visualization. I was not able to do the one-hour of uninterrupted listening. It would proved to be pointless and almost impossible for me to do. To be honest, I think one-hour of uninterrupted visualization is the more challenging than one-hour of uninterrupted listening.

The location I decided to sit down and “watch” is in a corner of a classroom at David King Hall. It is where my wife and her classmates were working on their assignment for their structure lab class. The teacher and everyone do not mind me being in the classroom because it is a very laid-back environment, unlike my previous classes I’ve taken for finance major. It seems to me that everyone enjoy doing things for their assignments because they actually love geology. I cannot help but look around the room and noticed how chaotic it would seem to someone new to this room. There are rocks, microscopes, textbooks, maps, and pictures of biomes ranging from deserts to rainforest to tundra.

I see people smiling and laughing while busy doing their work. They seem to really love doing their geology work. My wife likes to help people so it was no surprise to me seeing her helping her fellow classmates. She would make a great teacher someday. In fact, that is what she really wants to do is to be a college professor. There was a guy named Joe in the classroom that seems to be the “class clown” and everyone always seem to laugh every time he opens his mouth.

It is interesting to see the students come and go as they please. Some go to get some lunch and bring it back to eat. The teacher is also eating something Chinese from the Johnson Center. Still, people are up and about helping each other and asking questions. After 30 minutes went by, people still seem to not mind that I am here doing my own thing – that is watching them like an anthropologist and taking notes. I just looked around the room scanning for something unusual to happen or something to happen, period. It seems like a normal day in the classroom.

I noticed that, occasionally,, my wife look over to me and smile but only for a brief second because she is busy doing her own work and helping others as well. I could see stuff on the board that has a lot of concepts about striations and degrees and angles for rocks. Pretty intense stuff if you don’t know what you are doing. Nonetheless, I sill feel more at home here than I do in a business class setting. The people are very friendly and enthusiastic about their fields. After an hour went by, I laid my head down and rested my eyes. By this time, I was visually exhausted.