Hi Bri,
Thank you for your feedback. In some sections you have said 'confident' do you mean that is good? Also, how can I improve my rationale, suggested extensions and limitations section as my teacher said it needs improvement.
Hi,
you're welcome
I realise that "confident" could be misleading since it's usually a good thing. What I mean there is that we can't assume our theories are right so you should be less confident/certain when talking about why your results are what they are. For example, if I believed that something was just about 100% true I'd use language like "strongly suggests" rather than saying things like "is" that imply certainty.
For your rationale, I'd suggest adding a very short bit near the start that addresses why anyone would bother to care about this research, rethinking how you talk about guard cells and try to get a bit smoother on how you integrate theory plus what you're doing together.
In the end it could look something like:
this is what transpiration is -> this is why you should care (reference) -> these factors influence it -> focus in on sunlight (why do you believe light intensity will impact transpiration? (the big review reference + how transpiration works) -> ideally something very succinct that kind of justifies the method (e.g. choice of species)
There are other ways of doing a successful rationale but using this approach might help you tighten up your "flow" and show how it all links together + justify your experiment more.
For limitations:
- think about things like: can I apply this to all species? What's the advantages & disadvantages of using natural light (only the disadvantages are limitations but you want to be aware of both)? How many repetitions did we have? What wasn't/couldn't be controlled?
- consider the extent to which your results may have been impacted by these & how it impacts your conclusions. E.g. Obviously you don't think a potometer is completely useless and gives random info otherwise you wouldn't have used it. From what you've described, we wouldn't expect the potometer to give us a lower reading of transpiration than was true - make things like this more explicit
For extensions:
- Get more specific! Think back to your limitations and draw on those