Chemistry 1

Chemistry
Adela Lopez
Professor Johnson
Writing 2 ACE
May 4, 2016

Chemistry
Chemistry is one of the many branches of science that studies the composition of matter
and its behavior. It entails many forms of which one can better understand the world through the
molecular perspective. Chemistry, as a discipline, began many years ago when science branched
out to better understand certain properties of particles and its interactions with others. Until this
day, many scholars use chemistry to understand these properties and create new ones. Chemistry
as a subject, can be very hard to understand and comprehend at times thus, over the years, it has
adopted strategies in order to ease its understanding. Based on lectures and chemistry articles,

Chemistry 2

we have concluded that the main strategies or literacy practices used in Chemistry are visuals,
formulas and specialized diction which all lead to a better understanding of Chemistry.
Chemistry requires the use of lots of visuals to see the interactions of properties with each
other and their components. Visuals are one of the most important practices that chemistry
departments use to teach others the shapes and forms of those studied in chemistry. These visuals
can vary from graphs, tables or pictures of different particles and molecules. In some cases,
multiple visuals are used in order to fully explain a particular concept. For example, in my
General Chemistry 1C lecture, my professor, Crisjoe A. Joseph, uses many visuals such as
molecular pictures and diagrams to helps us see the components of many particles such as those
of electrons. The visuals help us see how they look and also allows us to understand why and
how their shapes either help them interact with others or prevent them from interacting with
others. As one former chemistry student said, the visuals that the professor shows during
class help me to understand better what he is saying, especially because I am a visual learner
(Student). Using visuals during lecture is especially important and extremely helpful for those
who are visual learners like this student and myself. Because the shapes of the molecules and
particles studied in Chemistry can become very complicated, the visuals are essential to the
understanding of Chemistry as a whole.
Since visuals are very important, we also see them in the Chemistry textbooks and
articles about Chemistry. The visuals in the chemistry textbooks makes it easier for students to
understand the concepts better because as they read the textbook they also have a visual
representation of what they are reading about. Chemistry-related articles, also use lots of visuals
to explain what is happening in an experiment. For example, the article Elucidating the Atomic
Structure of Different Sources of Fly Ash Using X-ray and Neutron PDF Analysis demonstrates
the use and the need of visuals to explain the atomic structures and the measurements obtained

Chemistry 3

from X-rays and PDFs through graphs and tables which allows us to learn of the differences of
each method (Bignozzi, M. C., Natali, M. E., White, C. E, 2016). Without these visuals, it would
be extremely hard to compare them only based on descriptions about the graphs. Thus, the
visuals are essential to the comprehensions of the article. By providing visuals in this article,
readers can more easily see what the author is explaining in words. In addition to this, they also
serve as a reference and evidence to what the author is stating in the article. Visuals are definitely
one of the most important practices chemists and scientists use to explain their theories and
experiments to others. Although, within these visuals one needs to be able to read and analyze
the data, which requires formulas.
Formulas play a huge role in chemistry in order to analyze data and calculate variables
using the obtained data. Through experiments, chemists obtain lots of information, but when
analyzing the data, there are a wide variety of formulas that can be used to determine different
information from the data obtained. In lecture, professor Joseph helps students better understand
the uses of each formula and how to choose which one to use. For example, Professor Joseph
writes a problem in the lecture slide and includes the answer, although, he works out the problem
on the chalkboard, which is a way to help students see how it works. Like one of the former
students said, I feel like he works out the problems on the board to help us better understand the
concepts that go along with it because working it out along with him is a lot more useful than
just copying it from the lecture slides (Student). A vast majority of students learn better by
doing things by themselves than just watching someone else do it and expect to learn it as well. It
seems that this is the approach that Professor Joseph is taking to help students actually learn the
steps when calculating for unknown variables. Chemistry is a discipline that requires us to really
understand what is going on and also how to use formulas to solve certain things. As many of us
know, the more we practice the better we get at something. This is the case for Chemistry,

Chemistry 4

therefore, my professor not only works out problems on the chalkboard during lecture, but he
also recommends that we do problems from the textbook to give us more practice. These book
problems are not a requirement, but doing them is very helpful to get more practice and to
understand the principles better. Another great example of the importance of formulas is found in
the article Sensing Performance of Sc-doped B12N12 Nanocage for Detecting Toxic Cyanogen
Gas: A Computational Study because it demonstrates how through the uses of different
formulas, the researchers were able to calculate the potentials of the chemical nanosensors of
B12N12 (Kamalinahad, S., Shakerzadeh, E., Solimannejad, M., 2016). This article is also a perfect
example that Chemistry requires many formulas in order to solve for an unknown variable, and
in order to do this, one must have a very good understanding of the usage of each formula.
Formulas allows us to compute data and to obtain more information for experiments, and they
are another important practice of chemistry that allows science to advance year after year.
Chemistry calls for a slightly different vocabulary use as opposed to the vocabulary we
use in our daily lives. Chemists and scientists use a different vocabulary because their vocabulary
revolves around experiments, theories, proofs and descriptions of particles and their interactions.
Many of these vocabulary terms are only seen and heard in science classes and scientific related
articles and books. For example, the article Kinetic Aspects of Tetrahydrobenzo[b]pyran
Formation in the Presence of Fructose as a green Catalyst: A Mechanistic Investigation is an
example of the extensive use of a different vocabulary within Chemistry (Ebrahimi, A., HabibiKhorassani, S. M., Pourpanah, S. S., Shahraki, M., 2016). In the title itself, we can see how most
of the words are words that many of us do not use in our everyday conversations. Within the
article, one can see as well that the vocabulary used to describe the aspects of the chemical
complex is a different vocabulary that can sometimes be hard to follow. For example, reading
along the article I saw words such as concentration, condensation or reaction, which are

Chemistry 5

all words that relate to Chemistry. These words are simple key words that identify with
Chemistry in a basic scale, but of course the vocabulary can get more difficult. For example,
along the article I also saw words such as spectrophotometry, catalyst, or dielectric to
name a few, that we cannot recognize unless we are scientists. Although, as one of the students
said, reading over the textbook helps me understand certain vocabulary that the professor uses
during class and it helps me understand better what is going on (Student). Reading the textbook
for class has helped her understand the concepts because sometimes the book gives a more
extensive explanation of the concepts and definitions of new words.
Chemistry is a very hard subject that requires lots of time investment to better understand
its concepts. Of course, many try to search for the best way to help others learn the subject well
and they do this though the uses of visuals, formulas and an extensive vocabulary. Visuals are
very helpful to see what is going on between particles and its components to better understand
them. Formulas allows us to use our analysis of data obtained from experiment and solve for
unknown information. The vocabulary used in chemistry allows us to explain our experiments
and theories to others. Definitely, the literacy practices that chemistry uses helps scientists to
better understand what Chemistry is.

Chemistry 6

References
Bignozzi, M.C., Natali, M. E., White, C. E., (2016). Elucidating the atomic structures of different
sources of fly ash using x-ray and neutron pdf analysis. Elsevier,148-156.
Ebrahimi, A., Habibi-Khorassani, S. M., Pourpanah, S. S., Shahraki, M., (2016). Kinetic aspects
of tetrahydrobenzo[b]pyran formation in the presence of fructose as a green catalyst: a
mechanistic investigation. Physical Chemistry Research, 4,379-390.
Kamalinahad, S., Shakerzadeh, E., Solimannejad, M., (2016). Sensing performance of Sc-doped
B12N12 nanocage for detecting toxic cyanogen gas: a computational study. Physical
Chemistry Research, 4, 315-332.
Student, personal communication, April 28,2016