Culminating project | Wright State University | Spring 2022
This is my thesis project for my MA in Rhetoric & Writing. I look at the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) format for online-based education, which is a format that was founded in the early 2010s with the goal of providing accessible and affordable college-level education. In my research, I found out that what it's turned into isn't in line with these stated goals. College- and professional-accredited MOOCs are often incredibly expensive, and the content they have on offer is only seemingly geared toward people who, counterintuitively, are already college-educated. So my paper presents a genre analysis and content analysis of some of the biggest MOOC platforms to determine a series of best-practices for the future of the format. As a demonstration of these best practices, I provide the APEX Level 1 MOOC.
I find this paper to be a really solid culmination of my work with instructional design throughout grad school, and a great demonstration of my research writing capabilities.
Personal project | 720 words | Spring 2023
What it is: A summary of the means by which airplanes fly -- thrust, lift, and control surfaces -- which I produced as a writing sample for a job application in April 2023.
What I did: The employer provided the prompt; I researched and wrote all text myself.
Why it's included: This was a good example of writing about a subject I'm not that familiar with. The ability to work with technical information outside of one's field, researching and interpreting the information one finds, is a key skill for a writer to have. It was a fun challenge, and one that I completed in a little over an hour.
Airplanes fly through a combination of two forces – thrust and lift – and are controlled by control surfaces.
Thrust
Thrust is generated by an engine, which pulls the plane forward. Generally, there are two broad types of engines used in airplanes today: Propellers and Jets.
· Propellers use rapidly spinning, fan-like blades to scoop up air and throw it backwards.
· Jets “breathe” in air through the front, compress and heat it into a superheated gas, and then blow it out of the back.
Both of these types of engines push a great deal of air backwards, which in turn pushes the aircraft forwards.
Jet engines tend to generate far more thrust than propellers, and tend to be used in heavier and faster aircraft. Propellers, on the other hand, are used primarily in small, lightweight, short-range civilian aircraft. Many planes make do with just one engine, but the very largest may use as many as six.
Either way, it’s important that there be an equal number of engines on either side of the plane, so that the center of thrust is aligned with the plane’s exact centerpoint. This ensures that the plane flies straight; if the center of thrust were further to the right, for example, then the plane would veer to the right.
Lift
Lift is a force generated by the shape of the aircraft that allows it to go up. Because airplanes are heavier than air (unlike, for example, a helium balloon), they must manipulate the air around them in a particular way in order to fly. The wings of the plane take a shape called an airfoil, a flat, elongated teardrop. An airfoil is not symmetrical; it is flatter on the bottom and rounder on the top. Air moving over the airfoil, then, must move farther than air moving below, and so moves over the plane more slowly. The force of the air moving under the wing moves fast enough to force the plane upward, generating lift as the plane rides on a current of fast-moving air.
The way air reacts to and moves around an object like an airplane as it passes through is referred to as aerodynamics. Drag, for instance, is an aerodynamic force that results from too much air pushing against the plane as it flies, which can slow it down. So, it’s critical that a plane “cuts” through the air with as little resistance as possible. Boxier or more jagged shapes would have many surfaces that air would get caught on, generating excess drag. That’s why most aircraft take on smoother, rounder, more slender shapes. Air is allowed to flow quickly and smoothly around the body of a plane, letting it move with as little drag as possible.
Control Surfaces
In addition, all airplanes feature control surfaces. These are movable parts that are controllable by the pilot, which change the way air moves over the plane, and so change the direction the plane moves. Control surfaces move on hinges, creating surfaces for air to push against, pointing parts of the plane in different directions. Usually, the standard control surfaces on a plane are:
· Elevators, located on the horizontal rear fin of the plane, point the plane up and down. When the elevators move up, air pushes against them, pushing the tail down and forcing the nose up. The opposite happens when the elevators move down: air pushing against them forces the tail up, and points the nose down.
· Ailerons, located on either wing, let the plane roll from side to side. These are identical in function to elevators, except that they move in opposite directions from each other: when one aileron moves up, the other moves down. This pushes one side of the plane up, and the opposite side down, which causes the plane to roll.
· The Rudder is located on the vertical tail of the plane. It moves from side to side, causing the airflow to push the plane to the right or left.
When flying a plane, the ailerons are controlled by rotating the yoke, a kind of steering wheel. The elevators are controlled by pushing and pulling the yoke in or out. Some smaller planes, in lieu of a yoke, have a joystick that functions in the same way. Lastly, the rudders are controlled by a pair of pedals at the pilot’s feet.