Marti Hoekstra
Marti Hoekstra is a senior at North Dakota State University and will graduate in May 2011 with her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing.
Introduction to my portfolio
English 324 is an upper level English course at NDSU also known as Writing in the Sciences. The established course objectives were met during the semester. During this course I examined variable genres of communication allowing me to explore and expand my communication skills through a variety of methods. The data I gathered along the way was integrated in a meaningful manner through the number of projects that follow in my portfolio. I managed these projects in a sophisticated manner working towards our class’s final website production. I looked at different scientific genres including research articles, literature reviews and research studies which helped me come to a realization and appreciation for the variety of expressions writing can be used in science. As I worked through the readings, chapter reflections allowed me to interpret and express the information in a way that a public audience could easily understand. Chapter reflections and other writing assignments demonstrated a clear and correct prose of writing. Using APA format I correctly cited my research collected, referencing them on a reference page. English 324 Writing in the Sciences is an online class that utilized the technology of NDSU blackboard, email and Facebook to communicate.
The semester project for this course was taken on by a group of three including Victoria Albers Ashley Abernathey and myself. Victoria is junior at NDSU majoring in Natural Resources management. Ashley is a fellow senior at NDSU majoring in Biological Science. In order to find out if there is a correlation between antibiotic use on farms and the growing problem of resistance in humans, my group set out to perform our own research regarding the differences between organic and conventional farming and its relationship to antibiotic resistance. The following portfolio contains a variety of materials relating to my study and research.
Initially our group wrote a proposal describing our plan as to how we would be carrying out our research and contributions to our class’s website of antibiotic resistance. The proposal is written in an IMDR clearly laying out our background information and our own plans to contribute to additional knowledge. An article review was written which examined a research article relating to antibiotic use in agriculture. This assignment perfected my interpretation of a scientific research article and gave me practice summarizing the main points of the article. I was also able to evaluate the authors work in the article. An Annotated Bibliography documented ten sources in APA format and summarized each source individually. A progress report gave my class an update on my group’s work and described where we were at in the stages of our project. Every reading response allowed me to reflect upon my reading and lay out for others what the reading meant to me. Our final project combined all of the skills practiced in this course conveyed in the form of an IMDR paper comparing antibiotic use on conventional farms with organic farming and how these two types contribute to antibiotic resistance in humans.
During our final project each group member worked hard to ensure that our project ran smoothly. My job initially was to communicate with two Fargo-Moorhead organic farmers and receive their input to our survey questions. I then contributed by laying out an outline for our project. As a group we met and wrote up each specified section and discussed how to complete each part. Along the way I also helped by editing our writing to ensure that professional and appropriate writing was used. By communicating with my two group members I was able to help keep us all organized so that our project would run smoothly during all stages of its design.
I hope you enjoy the following items placed in my portfolio that demonstrate the objectives achieved in English 324 Writing in the Sciences.
Documents in my portfolio
Proposal: The proposal is a document that mainly lays our group’s plan of action for our major project in the course. It gives the reader a background of data about our topic and describes for the reader how we will go about our research and surveys. It also includes a schedule of events that will take place over the course of the semester.
Article review: An article review describes a research article that was found relevant to our group’s topic of choice. I read the article, summarized the main ideas for the reader and analyzed the author’s style and effectiveness.
Annotated bibliography: An annotative bibliography includes ten relevant sources that contribute to the background information of our topic of antibiotic use on farms. Each source was cited in APA format and includes a brief description of the article.
Progress report: A progress report was given to the class to report how our group was coming along on our project. It describes what has been done and what is yet to be done in order to complete our contribution to the website. A specific plan of action is discussed in detail and what steps are yet to be completed and how we as a group will accomplish these tasks.
Reading response 1: Reading responses one and two discuss two chapters from Levy’s book, The Antibiotic Paradox. The responses reflect on each chapter and discuss what I found interesting during my reading. The readings also prompted me to ask additional questions for discussion with my classmates.
Final project: Our final project gives background information about antibiotic use on farms, organic farming and also how these two have an effect on antibiotic resistance found in humans. It also includes the surveys that were performed to gather our own research. A discussion entails a comparison of the background information gathered with our own data we gathered from our interviews.
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