To my surprise, my group and I could have never conducted and completed a full-length collaborative research project had it not been for Google Docs. Using Good Docs gave us a medium through which we could all collaborate by sharing ideas, editing, revising, and brainstorming for further research. It provided us a blank slate for our research to expand and our ideas to flourish.
The finished product is a multi-modal approach to exploring, through extended research, ammonia in beef. The piece informs the reader as it provides facts about the scientific background and uses of ammonia, the regulatory pH levels of ammonia in beef, the effects of injecting beef with ammonia, the reasons why beef is injected with ammonia, and alternatives for using ammonia in beef. Furthermore, the product includes Beef Product Inc.’s (BPI) official website, an informative video about ammonia filler, and a graphic that represents a survey conducted by our group.
As it stands, the piece is a lucid reflection of the result of frustrated researchers searching for an answer they thought they were going to find. Although the product did not reveal what the group had expected it to reveal, the result is effective in that it exposes the intricacies of ammonia usage and it allows the reader to become an active consumer. Ultimately, we provided the foundation for ammoniated beef to be pondered…and possibly questioned.