Yesterday I presented my first semester’s worth of work on Music in the Stars. I think that it went very well and there were many thought provoking questions asked as well as some interesting suggestions for making the project better. Gabriele has two intriguing suggestions, the first being to use intensity values in correlation to volume. Continue reading
During my second week of senior project, I was able to go to a theatre with my mentor to watch Particle Fever, a documentary by a JHU professor on the adventure that leads scientists at CERN towards the prominent “god particle.” This scientific documentary is uniquely edited with fascinating graphics to demonstrate the components of Standard Model and the structure of the famous Large Hadron Collider. The significance of witnessing the discovery of Higgs boson is as important as watching Edison turned on the first light bulb. Continue reading
After the completion of Standard Model, scientists developed many models trying to describe the subatomic world. Two of the most prevalent ones are Supersymmetry (SUSY) and multiverse.
Multiverse, the more prevalent one in pop culture, claims that there exist many universes outside of ours with different constants. These magical mathematical numbers include the speed of light, gravitational constant, Planck constant, etc. Continue reading
The famous 50-foot-diameter superconducting muon storage ring.
Muon G-2 experiment is a very recent experiment that will be conducted using the accelerator in Fermilab. The experiment is a continuation of G-2 experiment in Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in order to unveil the mystery of the discrepancy between the theoretical and the measured value of “g.”
G value is the ratio between the magnetic moment and the spin of a specific particle. It was predicted in Paul Dirac’s theory that g value is exactly two for muon. Continue reading
With three more weeks before graduation, I’m disheartened to see my Independent Project coming so quickly to an end! The experience and amount of time I’ve spent working with my incredible mentor has been utterly invaluable, and though I wish I could prolong our partnership, I’m grateful for every second he has set aside his own work in order to teach me. I owe my immense improvement in writing to his inspirational style of teaching and naturally powerful way with words. Continue reading
As I began to prepare for my presentation next Wednesday I was surprised to find that it was more difficult than I expected to describe my process. At first I had trouble with drudging the content from my memory and spent the beginning of the week in reflection of the semester and what I have achieved. Continue reading
Most of us have heard the story of how Sir Isaac Newton realized the existence of gravity through a following apple. Though the anecdote may not be true, it nevertheless presented the notion of gravity and its effect on objects in simplified terms. Gravity affects every object is no mystery to everyone.
Gravity is carried out by a theoretical subatomic particle named graviton.
While I haven’t actually compiled a list of writing tips from pirates, Emily Wenstrom came up with a few from Captain Jack Sparrow in her post about writing first drafts on The Write Practice. In her helpful piece, Ms. Wenstrom’s first tip is, “The rules are more like guidelines.” When writing your first draft, don’t restrict yourself; explore your options and experiment. Her second tip is, “Improvise as needed.” All the time, events take an unexpected turn in writing, but the best thing to do in this situation is to just go with it. Thirdly, “All that matters is what you can do and what you can not do.” Continue reading
This week has been an exciting one in terms of project development. Continue reading
As I’m getting closer to the end of the semester, my mentor and I have decided to start reviewing all of my pieces in order to choose which two I’m going to use in my final project. As a result, for the past week, I’ve been doing lots of rewriting. The goal right now is to work on the changes my mentor gave me for each literary sketch, and after we’ve reviewed those, we’ll pick my final two to fine tune. This leads me to my topic for today: nothing but revisions!
Seeing as how each of my short pieces are completely different (more or less), one of the things I’ve been trying to figure out is how to revise them all so that they all stand at the same level of quality. While I would typically go straight to one of my usual sources (Nathan Bransford) to answer this question, this time, I decided to come up with my own revision checklist:
1. Look for a great density of material in the first paragraph, or at least the first page. It’s important to set the scene (main character, setting, tone) right away.
2. Use specificity and details, especially if you want to connect them to a metaphor (or an event later on in a larger piece)
3. Either bring up or allude to the characters’ background or history to help explain their actions and motives in the current situation
4. Even in a short piece, consider the transitions in a scene, how the situation might change (e.g. a twist to the story, a revelation, a changed desire, things gone wrong)
5. If your dialogue sounds stiff and formal, try reading it aloud to see where you can make it sound more casual and modern
6. Re-articulate the points in the story that could use more impact
7. Make sure your title isn’t obvious and doesn’t give away too much
What else do you look for when revising your writing?
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