Featured Student Writer: Jordan Greenlee

Featured Honors Thesis Writer: Jordan Greenlee

Interview conducted by Kelly Westeen and Bob Haslam

Jordan Greenlee, recipient of the UA Chancellor’s Scholarship, is a senior double major in Electrical Engineering and Math from Oakridge, Tennessee. He is enrolled in the Honors College and is nearing the completion of his Honors thesis project. Jordan has been utilizing the services of Kelly Westeen, Honors Thesis Consultant at the QWC, since the beginning of the fall ’08 semester. We sat down with Jordan to ask him a few questions about his research, his Honors thesis writing process, and his experiences working with the QWC Honors Writing Consultant.

KW: You had the opportunity to study abroad during your undergraduate experience. Tell us about where you studied, what you did, and how the experience shaped your future goals.

JG: In the spring of 2007, I studied abroad at the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland. It was a really good experience. I took four math classes over there, and that’s when I decided to major in math, and I took a mathematical biology class that was particularly interesting to me. The professor of that class was Dr. Anderson, and he was doing some pretty good research in conjunction with Vanderbilt. That was when I realized I wanted to do something like he does. He uses his research to help other people.

KW:Tell us about the scholarships and awards you’ve won.

JG: For the study abroad, I was awarded the NSF IREE award, and also an Honors College Study Abroad Award, and that funded my work abroad. Then whenever I came back and started doing research, I was awarded a SURF grant to work on my research. Later in my junior year, I was awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, and that was for both academic study and research. And then, this year, I was part of a group that was awarded the John A. White Faculty-Student Collaboration Award.

KW: You’re nearing the completion of your Honors thesis project. Tell us a little bit about the research you did for your thesis.

JG: I did my thesis on the modeling of biological systems, specifically the breast ducts and the vasculature in the breast. It was a project for Dr. El-Shenawee. She’s currently working on detecting breast cancer using microwave methods. So my work contributes to the theoretical portion of her research.

KW: Tell us about your writing process while working on the Honors thesis. What was it like? What challenges did you face?

JG: I started my research for the Honors thesis the summer after I returned from Scotland, and that work continued through the following summer. Then I started writing the thesis. One of the major challenges was that a whole year had passed since some of the things I’d done; I had to go back to look at the various documents I prepared and used. Thankfully, I had saved them all. So that was a huge challenge. I started writing the thesis over the summer, and by summer’s end, I had a pretty good draft. I would work on it an hour or two a day over the summer, and that pretty much knocked it out.

BH: Tell us about the major sections of your thesis document, Jordan.

JG: I got a template off of the Graduate School’s Website, and that helped a lot with the sections. It tells you exactly what kind of formatting to use.

BH: So, prior to writing the document, you weren’t entirely clear on what those major sections should be?

JG: That’s correct. There are actually different requirements in different colleges for the Honors thesis. For electrical engineering, I contacted several people, and they told me to follow the Graduate School’s thesis guidelines. So, for my thesis, the major sections are the abstract, acknowledgements, introduction, background, approach, implementation, analysis, conclusions, references, and appendices.

BH: And within any of those sections did you have to review previous literature?

JG: Yes, definitely. My research had built off some previous research , so I had already been reading up on it. So, naturally, in the background section, there’s discussion of a lot of papers.

BH: Had you ever written a literature review before?

JG: No, but I also had the guidance of some of the graduate students in Dr. El-Shenawee’s lab.

BH: And had you ever written a document of this length during your undergraduate career?

JG: No.

BH: So this was a really big undertaking . . .

JG: Yes.

KW: You’ve been coming to the QWC since the beginning of the semester for help with your thesis and your graduate school application materials. How did you hear about the QWC and the Honors Thesis Consultations?

JG: Dr. McCrae told me about it. I asked her if there was anything on campus to help me with the thesis. I knew that my English wasn’t that polished--the grammar in it--and I was looking for something that would help me polish the grammar. The QWC also provided a fresh set of eyes to the research. The Writing Center has been good for that, definitely.

BH: You mentioned that in working with Kelly you got help with grammar issues. Did you find that you had any challenges with organization within the major sections?

JG: Maybe in a few I had consistency issues within the sections. Sometimes I would write out words instead of putting in the symbols. The way I cited a few studies wasn’t consistent at times, either. She helped me clear that up.

KW: Do you feel like your writing has changed since coming to the QWC?

JG: Yes. Every time I come, I learn new things about grammar and how to better say what I want to say and how to put ideas on paper better. It also provided me with a fresh set of eyes. There were some things that may have been clear to me and my advisor, Dr. El-Shenawee, but that was only because we had been in close contact with the research for so long that it had seemed that several things were implied, whereas they weren’t really clear in the paper. So it helped me narrow in on those things and explain a little more about ambiguous elements of the research.

KW: You’ve also had some opportunities to present your research at conferences. Tell us about what and where you’ve presented.

JG: I got to present twice. First was at the Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference in Arkadelphia. It went really well. There were about 15 people in the room, pretty low-key. There wasn’t much stress, so it was good for my first time presenting. The next time I presented was to about 70 people in Ohio at the Higher Collaborative Conference on Bioinformatics. I presented my own work and the work of one of Dr. El-Shenawee’s graduate students, Seth Shumate. It was a lot more stressful, but I felt prepared because Dr. El-Shenawee had me give the presentation to our group every other week before the conference.

KW: What advice do you have for a student who is preparing to write an Honors thesis or who is already drafting one?

JG: I definitely suggest using the QWC. It’s a great resource, and it’s free. Also, it’s a good idea to stay organized with your research and to have all of your references in order and saved in well-organized folders so you can refer back to them at any time.

If you would like to read interviews from the QWC's previous featured student writers click here.

Featured Honors Thesis Writer: Jordan Greenlee

Interview conducted by Kelly Westeen and Bob Haslam
Jordan Greenlee, recipient of the UA Chancellor’s Scholarship, is a senior double major in Electrical Engineering and Math from Oakridge, Tennessee. He is enrolled in the Honors College and is nearing the completion of his Honors thesis project. Jordan has been utilizing the services of Kelly Westeen, Honors Thesis Consultant at the QWC, since the beginning of the fall ’08 semester. We sat down with Jordan to ask him a few questions about his research, his Honors thesis writing process, and his experiences working with the QWC Honors Writing Consultant. KW: You had the opportunity to study abroad during your undergraduate experience. Tell us about where you studied, what you did, and how the experience shaped your future goals. JG: In the spring of 2007, I studied abroad at the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland. It was a really good experience. I took four math classes over there, and that’s when I decided to major in math, and I took a mathematical biology class that was particularly interesting to me. The professor of that class was Dr. Anderson, and he was doing some pretty good research in conjunction with Vanderbilt. That was when I realized I wanted to do something like he does. He uses his research to help other people. KW:Tell us about the scholarships and awards you’ve won. JG: For the study abroad, I was awarded the NSF IREE award, and also an Honors College Study Abroad Award, and that funded my work abroad. Then whenever I came back and started doing research, I was awarded a SURF grant to work on my research. Later in my junior year, I was awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, and that was for both academic study and research. And then, this year, I was part of a group that was awarded the John A. White Faculty-Student Collaboration Award. KW: You’re nearing the completion of your Honors thesis project. Tell us a little bit about the research you did for your thesis. JG: I did my thesis on the modeling of biological systems, specifically the breast ducts and the vasculature in the breast. It was a project for Dr. El-Shenawee. She’s currently working on detecting breast cancer using microwave methods. So my work contributes to the theoretical portion of her research. KW: Tell us about your writing process while working on the Honors thesis. What was it like? What challenges did you face? JG: I started my research for the Honors thesis the summer after I returned from Scotland, and that work continued through the following summer. Then I started writing the thesis. One of the major challenges was that a whole year had passed since some of the things I’d done; I had to go back to look at the various documents I prepared and used. Thankfully, I had saved them all. So that was a huge challenge. I started writing the thesis over the summer, and by summer’s end, I had a pretty good draft. I would work on it an hour or two a day over the summer, and that pretty much knocked it out. BH: Tell us about the major sections of your thesis document, Jordan. JG: I got a template off of the Graduate School’s Website, and that helped a lot with the sections. It tells you exactly what kind of formatting to use. BH: So, prior to writing the document, you weren’t entirely clear on what those major sections should be? JG: That’s correct. There are actually different requirements in different colleges for the Honors thesis. For electrical engineering, I contacted several people, and they told me to follow the Graduate School’s thesis guidelines. So, for my thesis, the major sections are the abstract, acknowledgements, introduction, background, approach, implementation, analysis, conclusions, references, and appendices. BH: And within any of those sections did you have to review previous literature? JG: Yes, definitely. My research had built off some previous research , so I had already been reading up on it. So, naturally, in the background section, there’s discussion of a lot of papers. BH: Had you ever written a literature review before? JG: No, but I also had the guidance of some of the graduate students in Dr. El-Shenawee’s lab. BH: And had you ever written a document of this length during your undergraduate career? JG: No. BH: So this was a really big undertaking . . . JG: Yes. KW: You’ve been coming to the QWC since the beginning of the semester for help with your thesis and your graduate school application materials. How did you hear about the QWC and the Honors Thesis Consultations? JG: Dr. McCrae told me about it. I asked her if there was anything on campus to help me with the thesis. I knew that my English wasn’t that polished--the grammar in it--and I was looking for something that would help me polish the grammar. The QWC also provided a fresh set of eyes to the research. The Writing Center has been good for that, definitely. BH: You mentioned that in working with Kelly you got help with grammar issues. Did you find that you had any challenges with organization within the major sections? JG: Maybe in a few I had consistency issues within the sections. Sometimes I would write out words instead of putting in the symbols. The way I cited a few studies wasn’t consistent at times, either. She helped me clear that up. KW: Do you feel like your writing has changed since coming to the QWC? JG: Yes. Every time I come, I learn new things about grammar and how to better say what I want to say and how to put ideas on paper better. It also provided me with a fresh set of eyes. There were some things that may have been clear to me and my advisor, Dr. El-Shenawee, but that was only because we had been in close contact with the research for so long that it had seemed that several things were implied, whereas they weren’t really clear in the paper. So it helped me narrow in on those things and explain a little more about ambiguous elements of the research. KW: You’ve also had some opportunities to present your research at conferences. Tell us about what and where you’ve presented. JG: I got to present twice. First was at the Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference in Arkadelphia. It went really well. There were about 15 people in the room, pretty low-key. There wasn’t much stress, so it was good for my first time presenting. The next time I presented was to about 70 people in Ohio at the Higher Collaborative Conference on Bioinformatics. I presented my own work and the work of one of Dr. El-Shenawee’s graduate students, Seth Shumate. It was a lot more stressful, but I felt prepared because Dr. El-Shenawee had me give the presentation to our group every other week before the conference. KW: What advice do you have for a student who is preparing to write an Honors thesis or who is already drafting one? JG: I definitely suggest using the QWC. It’s a great resource, and it’s free. Also, it’s a good idea to stay organized with your research and to have all of your references in order and saved in well-organized folders so you can refer back to them at any time.