Report on My Interviews

Well, both of my interviews have happened, here are some of the findings on writing in the field of Optics from Dr. Kupinski and Dr. Sasian.

Tumisu. "Interview Job Icon Job Interview Conversation" 12/23/15 via Pixabay. Public Domain.

Different Genres:

• popular articles 
• Consist of research findings presented to interested people but are not necessarily in the field.  
• The purpose of these articles is the whet the appetites of students or interested individuals and get them thinking about optics. 
• research proposals
• proposals for research written to sponsors to persuade them to support their research
• proposals are submitted, rejected, reworked and submitted again and again until they are accepted
• conferences
• generally have oral presentations on their research
• opportunity to network with other professionals or students

Challenges in writing:

Both Dr. Kupinski and Dr. Sasian expressed challenges in writing to external audiences. Dr. Kupinski revealed that she writes to audiences that are not experts in the field by imagining her days as an undergrad and explaining in a way her undergrad self would be able to understand.

Reward in writing:

In addition to his research, Dr. Sasian teaches graduate level optical engineering classes. He said that students are most of the rewarding audiences to talk to because they are fresh and bright. He says he enjoys the way their faces light up when they learn things they are actually interested in because they are in classes they choose instead of mandatory courses.

Mass media:

Popular articles can be found in mass media. These can be in the form of 30-second news segments on new technology that involves optics. More likely, mass media will contain news about ethics or context surrounding optics projects/research.