Reflections

Experience Synthesis 
After doing this paper I've come to realize how intertwined our experiences and memories are to who we become. Looking back to what I did at an airshow, to reading an article about being bad at math, and a YouTube video talking about the idea that we are our own "gods" in a way among other sources, I came to an Epiphany. That we can control who we are to a greater degree than we ever thought possible. We are indeed the architects of our lives and the captains of our own ship. By working to synthesis all these sources together in this paper, it allowed me to step back and think about how common everyday experiences ultimately evolve into some greater moment of recognition of understanding a little better of how the world works around us.
Explainer Reflection- Compared to Design Plan

When looking back and comparing my final product to the design plan I see how much the paper really deviated from it. Rather I should say I see how much the paper grew around this design "trellis" and grew into its own organic piece of work. As it was a created product its not going to fully fit into the form as it grows into its own, however it is possible to see where the product comes from looking past the leaves and looking and seeing the bark knurled around this design trellis one can see what beginning the paper originally had. For my particular paper I used the design plan as simply a way to get my idea started. Its not so much as a plan as it is a way for me to put my ideas down in a general mind map, where I can go in and make it something that has a more guided finish. As I consider my work style spontaneous, I like to go in, empty my mind and simply write on a topic. Whatever form the paper takes that is what the general form the paper will be. It is then my job to try and cut back the growth into the plan of what it ought to be. Perhaps this is why I do not like writing papers that have a very narrowed and specified focus. By using intuition and random association while writing the paper, it will inevitably trail off into its own path depending on what is around me or what enters my mind at the time of writing. This is my preferred style of writing as it allows for creativity to flow. I think its rather hard to really plan a good piece of creative writing, even though this isn't necessary a creative piece, there is an element of wordsmithing that I think requires a greater degree of freedom for it to be fully realized.

Researched Argument Synthesis Essay

Out of all the papers I have written this year I would have to say that this was my favorite paper to write. The reasoning behind this is because it allowed me to solve a conundrum I have been having in my everyday life and that is how to explain climate change to someone who may not know what it is or doubt its existence. The writing process also better enabled me in the future to work with multiple research sources and to better integrate all the sources together. If there was something I would change of the paper, it is going back and adding more details to the arguments, however that would involve more sources than I already have listed and that would exceed the scope that the assignment called for. All in all I really enjoyed this writing assignment and it not only made me a better writing, but it made me better able to communicate scientific ideas to everyday people.

Research Argument Synthesis Essay Presentation

To end the year the research argument synthesis essay presentation, gave me more insight into presenting scientific data to a group of people. This is not the first time I had to present data like this however, doing it again allowed me to understand the process more. One of the biggest issues I ran into was keeping to the strict time table of 5 minutes. With explaining science to a group of people who aren't activity involved in its workings, there usually is a segment of explaining background information so that the audience can grasp what you are talking about. That is the issue I ran into because I went too in depth in the background and went about it too inefficiently to really get to explaining my main point and actually driving my main point home. This presentation taught me the importance of ensuring that my presentations are carefully constructed so that all the main points can be hit on in the light detail that they deserve.