User:SamanthaPearson

=Analytical Writing=

Statement of Intent
I have gotten hooked on the history channel lately. A lot of the scientific programs on it interest me, but since I am an art student and not a physics student, I don't have the time or chance to study them. My goal is to write three different papers, since I can't choose between the three; plus, three smaller papers will be easier than one huge one, because depending on the subject, sometimes there is only so much that can be written on it. It was hard for me to choose, but I picked black and white holes, androids, and alternate/parallel universes. I chose to do black and white holes primarily because I didn't even know that there was a such thing as a white hole, until the history channel mentioned it. I actually chose androids because of a show that I watched that showed humans being replaced by androids in everything including jobs. People were even falling in love with some of them. How real is too real? As for the third paper on the alternate universe...the history channel had a show that was talking about them. I'm finding it hard to believe that there could be an alternate universe, but maybe that is because my mind can't comprehend it. Anyway, hopefully these papers will put my questions to rest.

Overview
I intend to write three papers this quarter since I have a variety of interests. My first paper will be on black and white holes, because I find them intriguing. My second paper will be on the future of androids. Will they replace humans? My third paper will be on the possibility of an alternate/parallel universe.

Rationale
I hope to be able to cure my curiosity. Every time I see something on the history channel that I find interesting, it makes me more curios.

Publication


Schedule


week 1: come up with ideas for papers

week 2: begin research on paper number one; find good resources

week 3: print out good resources and highlight important information

week 4:write paper number 1

week 5: begin research on paper number two; find good resources; become familiar with it

week 6: print out good resources and highlight important information

week 7:write paper number 2

week 8:begin research on paper number three; find good resources and become familiar with the subject

week 9: print out the good resources and highlight important information to use in the paper

week 10:write paper number 3

week 4 progress: So far I printed out a bunch of research papers on all the various subjects and highlighted stuff that I thought was important. I'm suppose to write my first paper this week on black and white holes, but I kinda want to do the android paper first since the reading for it seemed more interesting, and I want to start out with the funnest paper first, because I think it will motivate me more to write the second one if I start out excited. My schedule says print out resources for the first paper, but I printed out stuff for all three since I was at the school and black and white prints don't cost anything(might as well get my money's worth). ^_^Anyways, as I continue to do research on the subjects, I may need to print out more information, depending on how much more I think I need.

Anticipated Problems
Since I know very little about the subjects, it might take me longer to understand them or to research them. Three papers may be too much with the subjects I want to write about, but because I am interested in all three, I still want to write all of them.

Week 6 Project Review
 I started out getting ahead on the research portion of my project. However, by week five I had not yet finished my first paper like I had anticipated. I tend to go through times of high motivation where I work ahead on everything, and then I slip back into being too tired and finding it hard not to procrastinate, so it’s hard for me to find a median. So far on my paper I have described what an android is, along with the origin of the word, among a few other small things. I have research that talks about what androids are being worked on right now in other countries, but I haven’t added that in yet. After the meeting, I know of a more variety of things to talk about in my paper that relate to androids and talk about them more in depth. I am still very excited about my project, because it gives me ideas of stories to write for animation.

Before Or During Week 6

 * Robotics
 * Read about the Uncanny valley.
 * Watch Blade Runner.
 * Learn about the Turing Test.
 * Read The Age of Spiritual Machines, by Grey Kurzweil
 * White Holes
 * Alternate/Parallel Universes

After Week 6
Self Assessment

I am really satisfied about how my project turned out. If it wasn’t for this class, I probably would not have made the time to research my three topics. I was happiest with my White Holes essay, because I had learned so much from it, and I feel that I understand it. The essay on Parallel Universes was really difficult to research, because most of the information I found on the internet was sci-fi related, and the sites that actually talked about the Multi-verse Theory basically said the same thing, but in different words. I learned a lot on my essay about Androids, but the problem I’m having with that one is that no matter how much research I do on it, I feel like it’s still not complete, just because there is so much to cover. I mean, once I research one part of it, then that leads to other branching out parts that I want to know about. I love doing research on questions that I have, but having to write a paper on some of them really forced me to pay attention to what I was reading, instead of casually reading it. When it came to actually writing the papers according to my schedule, I found that I worked best when I would partially work on one paper, switch to another when I got burnt out, then came back to the other. The website easybib.com was a lifesaver for me. In the past I always felt like I spent an equal amount of time looking up information and formats for the bibliography as I did the research, when in my opinion the research should take more time. With this site, I could spend more time on research and bookmark my sources until the end of my paper where I would enter the web address into the easybib, and it would generate a bibliography for me. Overall, I am very happy with my work this quarter. Even though I procrastinated a little in the beginning, I quickly caught up with what I was suppose to do.

Project
 (project was emailed to instructor)