Zhe Lu

Professor Evan Robert Farr

Freshman Inquiry: Portland
19 March,2015
Reflection
I chose the university studies goal communication as the best goal that could
capture my Portland bridges research paper very well. This university suggest
students Present information, express ideas, or construct arguments for particular
purposes and audiences. For this point, students should be able do the whole process
that complete a personal paper. Students should be sure they could make use of the
writing process, including brainstorming, drafting, workshopping, revising, editing,
and proofreading work. Also, students should find, evaluate and analyze some
primary or secondary source they use to support their paper.
The reason why I think this university studies goal capture my research my paper
very well because I write this research paper follow the process of the writing and
find a lot of science/engineering source that be converted into an understandable and
concise paper. First, I read the context of what I have to write and think about the title
of my research paper. The context ask me research and write one thing of Portland.
Due to the Portland are separated two part by the Willamette River and there are a lot
of bridges, I think the Portland bridges as the title of my research paper. Next step is
doing the brainstorming, I came up with some ideas that might be fit the subject of my
research paper. advantages of each architecture, what functions they have and what

these bridges should be changed in the future urban planning became to my thesis
statement and I would find some sources that relative with these three main points.
Also, I listed some key wards that I could be use in the process of finding sources.
Then I found the primary and secondary sources, evaluate and analyze them could be
the evidence that support my idea. I read a lot of relative paper, a big part of them are
complex scientific/engineering paper. I listed these relative papers that could be
evidence to support my research paper. Because these evidence are almost all
scientific/engineering paper, I have to do the summary, quote and paraphrase, also I
have to convert them to a way that all audiences could be understand, not only
someone has s scientific/engineering background. For example, Wei-Xin Ren ; Tong
Zhao ; and Issam E. Harik, M.ASCE give a equation MU*(t)+CU*(t) +KU*=F*(t)
to calculate stable of one bridge. However, I thought not all people could understand
what this equation is , so I explain what the variables in this equation is. where M, C
and K = mass,damping and stiffness matrices of the structure; and U(t) and F(t)
displacement and input force vectors. Also I explain how this equation works and .
For this equation, the more mass of the steel arch type bridge get, the more input
force that others give his type bridge could carry, as similar as the damping and
stiffness matrices. I converted evidences be a simple way that all audiences could be
understand After that, I made the whole structure of my paper, and used these
evidences what I found to support each main point. I wrote a draft first and edited that
again to make sure I used all the evidence and have a strong point to support my
research paper. The last step is checking grammar, as a international students, it is the

worst part for me. I went to the writing office and met with a tutor to help me edit this
problem. Therefore, I think my research paper fit the university goal
communication very well.