A Week of Finalizing the Advocacy Project

I am now writing this blog after I finally finished typing up the last page of my advocacy project. I am now relieved that I finished the last major paper I would have to do for the Writing 39C class. Thinking about it now, this entire quarter had been all about workiing up to this moment. Every piece of writing I've had to do for this class contributes somehow to this final paper. It has definitely been a strenous journey getting up to this point.

The paper all started with the curiousity habit of mind, defined as the desire to learn more about the world. My journey first started when I was brainstorming about the topic I wanted to write my HCP on. I didn't want to write about animal mistreatment or intelligence. I also demonstrated the creavitiy habit of mind, defined as the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas. I wanted to do research on a topic that I know would be different from those of other students. I wanted to do research on a topic that really intrigued me. As a biological sciences student planning on switching to pharmaceutical sciences, i wanted to research about current animal research being done for the purpose of medical knowledge. I recalled an article I read a few years back about how lobsters may hold the key to biological immortality. I immediately decided that it would be the topic I would research and write my HCP about. I started with a simple Google search of, "cellular regeneration in lobster". That was when I came across the PDF of a research paper by Harrison et al. entitled, "Amputation-induced activity of progenitor cells leads to rapid regeneration of olfactory tissues in lobster". I decided then that regeneration of olfactory tissues in lobsters would be the main focus of my HCP. From there, I searched through the library databases using "olfactory tissues", "cell regeneration", and "lobsters", as my key terms. I came across several research papers all addressing some form of research involving lobsters and their olfactory organs. I decided to read through all the ones I thought had some what relevant titles for relevant information that I could use in my paper. From there, I demonstrated the engagement and persistence habits of mind. The habits of mind are defined as a sense of investment and involvement in learning and the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects. I knew from the first research that I came across on Google that 1. there is a lot of scientific terms that I have no idea what they mean, and 2. olfactory tissue regeneration of lobsters is an extremely specific topic. However, despite my limited understanding of lobster physiology and the miniscule amount of sources that I will probably be able to find, I decided to continue researching my topic, reading through any paper that may not refer to olfactory tissues in lobsters, but lobsters in general, to understand their metabolic processes and their olfactory organs. Drawing from multiple sources, I was finally able to compile an HCP with an introduction about the olfactory organs in lobsters and review the research done on olfactory tissue regeneration in crustaceans and lobsters.

After the HCP was the "whats the problem" portion of the AP. Here, I demonstrated the metacognition habit of mind, defined as the ability to reflect on one's own thinking as well as on the individual and cultural processes used to structure knowledge. When I was brainstorming what problem I wanted to advocate, I thought back to why I even chose to write about lobsters in the first place. I realized that I was initially interested in researching about lobsters because of their medical and scientific implications. Since lobsters have proven through research to have medical potentials, I thought that I could write about a problem lobsters are facing, which I though would be human caused chemical pollution. When finding soures to back up this problem, I thought it would be difficult to connect my HCP to the problem since they are such different topics. However, surprisingly, using a quick search with the keywords, "lobsters" and "chemical pollution", I came accross the research by Laufer et al, on the effect of alkylphenols on lobster growth and health that I could use to connect the effects of chemical pollutions on lobster growth to later generalize into marine life.

After writing the "whats the problem" portion of the AP, we had to combine our HCP with the 3 page AP draft to form the AP so far draft. For this assignment, we essentially had to combine our HCP and AP together, I had made specific changes, as stated in the previous blog post, to cut out irrelevant portions of the HCP to fit the page limits.

Finally, now that I've completed my final revisions to my AP, I want to talk about some of the things I decided to remove from my papre and parts that I wanted to keep. In the end, I demonstrated the flexibility habit of mind, defined as the ability to adapt to situations, expectations or demands. I do this by fulfilling the many requirements of the AP. Firstly, from the AP draft so far, I added roughly 2.5 pages addressing the viable solutions to the problem of chemical pollution to complete the AP. For this portion, I used sources that I had previously found for homework and used the TED talk by Clay Shirkey to address how individuals can help resolve the issue by engaging through social media. After writing this section, I proofread my entire paper looking for parts to cut out. I decided to rewrite my introduction so that I can introduce lobsters, implications of lobster and marine animal research, the problem that marine life is facing, and viable solutions, to essentially summarize the main points of the paper. I also decided to include the entire section introducting the olfactory organ of lobsters and their reliance on their olfactory sense even though it had no relevance to the problem of chemical pollution and solutions. I decided to include this section becasue I felt like it it was necessary for understanding the literature review of olfactory tissue regeneration in lobsters. Without it, I felt like scientific terms that referred to lobster physiology and metabolic processes would overwhelm and confuse the readers. After making final changes, I checked to make sure my paper had included the necessary components and did not exceed the page limit.

Over the course of this journey, I've demosntrated the responsibility habit of mind. Responsibility is definied as the ability to take ownership of one's actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others. Several times throughout this journey, including today, I've paid the consequences of procrastinating major paper deadlines until Sunday night, and working late into the night. Although I know I should not procrastinate, I always end up giving in to the inevitable and paying the price at the cost of sleep. Although I procrastinate, I always complete the work to the best of my ability and finish it by the end of the night the assignment is suppose to be due.