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Observing the unfamiliar The Tool

English 2 (ENGL 0205) Assignment 1

Edward Cheng Mun Kit (0313466)

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Observing the Unfamiliar The Tool I have chosen a fountain pen as the tool that I want to observe over the period of a week. The reason why I chose a fountain pen as my tool is because it is a simple device that have many parts to describe. Fountain pen is a curious example of an oldfashioned object. Somehow, the fountain pen became a luxury item and found a niche. Fountain pen defined as a pen containing a reservoir that automatically feeds the writing point with ink. But for my first impression towards the pen, it was just a normal pen compared to the other ink pens. In this assignment, I will let myself to be like a curious child or a dedicated scientist to observe this pen. Before I write this essay, I was reading the example essay found in our textbook because this was my first attempt at writing a descriptive essay. I began with noting down the visual details of this pen. Around six minutes later, I had noting down whatever I had seen through this pen. Through the observation, there are six parts for this pen that are pen cap, ink cartridge, barrel and lever, section, feed and nib. Its out of my expectation, because I imagined that this pen would only have three or four parts. Most of the parts are made by steel. The colour of the pen was 90 percent black and 10 percent gold. The pen cap cover the nib and section when the pen is not in use. The colour of the pen cap is black and gold. The shape of the pen cap is just like a normal usable pen. Next, the nib is the portion that used to write, it is made of steel and it is gold in colour. It is the only sharp part
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among the pen. The collector is plugging with the cartridge as I seen some excess ink flowing out of the collector to the fin slightly. The section is the part that joints the nib and feed to the barrel, the colour of its is black and gold too. The cartridge is a disposable ink cartridge that plugs into the back of the section. The last part is the barrel and lever. It is the body of the pen and the cartridge are housed inside the barrel. After a few minutes of observation, I proceed my investigation with closing my eyes to sense the pen through touch. My first sense was that, the temperature of the pen was cool like I am holding a stainless steel object. But after I hold it for a few seconds, the temperature was just like holding a normal Artline drawing pen. The surface of the pen was as smooth as glass and there was a rough surface on the barrel. As I have observed it before, I think it was an imprint of my name as this is the birthday present from my father. The shape of the pen is just like a normal drawing pen with 1 cm thick. I landed the tool on my palms; it was very heavy in weight compare to other usable pens. My mind went numb again until I had another great idea. I grabbed a stapler from my table and compared it with my pen. The pen was slightly lighter than the stapler. After I losing the weight by using imaginations, I tried shaking the pen and it produced some weird sound tick..tick. Then I tried shaking it harder, and I found that the sound was the vibration of the cartridge. And I noticed that I did not set it up probably just now. After I set it up again. I tried flicking the
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pen, it made a tick..tick sound. The last part of my observation was smell of the object. The smell of the pen was like a knife and a little bit blood and salty. By the way, it was a distinctive smell though. After a period of time, the observation was finally over. My mind was so tired after focusing too much on the observation. After the observation, I have a strong feeling that as long as we hold curiosity in our daily life, there will be new discoveries. I wish I will hold the philosophy that I have learnt through this observation in my future life. So that, I would not overlook every single things around me again.
(738 words)

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