space.discussion.Thinking+and+Communicating+with+Clarity+and+Precision.

Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision.

March 7th 2010

Our class recently completed a lab report, in which we were to conduct our own hand-designed experiment, and then analyze our results. Piecing together a lab, however, requires more than simply having a few observations and data points in mind. Writing a lab requires a precise nature and an ability to succesfuly describe your thoughts in a way others can understand. Communicating your thoughts is really half the battle. The other half, indeed, is inside your head where the thought process occurs.

After completing the lab, I took some time to reflect upon my abilities in terms of this area. Without doubt, it's a work in progress. Thinking with precision and clarity is a stronger point with me. What goes on in my head doens't require others to understand me. I alone have to understand myself. However, where I struggle more is when my ideas are set out on paper. For example, sometimes summarizing a rather large idea into one sentence encompasses all that I am thinking, but does not allow the reader to grasp the concept I am attempting to communicate. I find that to make sure I am being clear, I need to stop, think, and reread the sentence. I need to ask myself, does this make sense to an outsider? And if I'm still not sure, read it to someone.

Precision, which during my lab applied more so to my mathematical calculations than anything else, is also very significant to the success of the lab report ( and anything else you are working on!). We are all tempted to write down a rough sketch of the calculations, rather than all the details. For instance, when working with percent uncertainty, it's easier to estimate it at some point, or forget about it here or there. And it's true, a highschool lab report will not cause the end of the world if a question lacks a percent uncertainty. But if we were really out to save the world with out experiments, we wouldnt't be testing concentrations of acids in terms of magnesium. The point of much of highschool is to offer good practice for when it really will make a difference to your surroundings. When you get a job, you may risk lives if you simply leave out important details.

So as trivial as it may seem at times, we really must focus on being precise and clear with our work. I could improve myself in this aspect simply by keeping it in mind no matter what I'm doing, and thus make it second nature. Because one day, who knows, maybe I will be saving the world with my experiments.



Here is a link to one of the earlier stages of writing my lab report-- the procedure, freshly created, emulated my thought process, but needed to be checked for its clarity to others.

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