Self-Assessment: Writing for the Sciences
Science is something I am deeply passionate about. Throughout the course of this semester, I believe I have improved immensely as a reader and writer. In writing for the sciences, the past writing assignments have taught me valuable lessons that I will carry on as a lifelong learner. Although, that does not say I am now a professional writer. Like many things in life, writing is a skill that must be practiced at all times in order to truly be an expert and never lose touch. Writing is utilized in many careers, not just for the sciences. For example, in newsletters, journalists have many years of practice in writing about the current news for the public. While it is true that writing can take on many uses, I will mostly be focusing on how writing can be used in pursuing a career in science. With that said, writing is an essential skill to have because it can be used to communicate important findings and meanings that may prove beneficial for some. As for the course learning objectives, I believe I have yet to accomplish two that I will address during the course of this paper.
My first high-stakes assignment for this class involved writing a technical description of an object, mechanism or process. It was clear the first obstacle of this assignment was to choose the topic we were to write about. The most logical approach, I thought, was to choose a process I was made familiar with. Thus, I opted to write about the water cycle. From the start of the assignment, I knew I had to presume the audience has no background knowledge on the subject. This only meant I had to write in great detail, down to the last atom. Fortunately, we were granted permission to include imagines to aid us in our descriptions. I believe this way of thinking coincides with one of the course learning objectives: negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of the genre, medium, and rhetorical situations. Writing the technical description paper help me is always taking into account the audience of who I am truly writing to, not just the professor teaching the course. I now view this assignment differently compared to the first time it was given. In addition, another course learning objective I presumed to have accomplished is: strengthen your source use practices. More specifically, I feel that I did an acceptable job of utilizing images by referring to them as “Figure 1.1”. This can be found in my body paragraphs within my technique description, as I attempt to explain how the watch cycle works. Scientists are very descriptive in explaining processes as a means to document information and share it among other scientists.
The scientific controversy paper was what I was most excited for since the start of this course. As someone who enjoys reading about controversies in today’s society, I had a lot of options to choose from. Eventually, I chose a topic I have not revisited since my days in intermediate school. The controversy I chose was based on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) because I was curious to see if either side has changed since I last read about them. For this paper, we were only allowed to incorporate sources from the City College Online Database in order to deem our sources credible. As a result, the following course learning objectives were met: 1) formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing, 2) practice using various library resources, online databases, and the internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects, and 3) strengthen your source use practices. I am confident I met these objectives based on the writing that I have composed. For the first objective, I wanted to maintain unbiased as to whether GMOs were harmful or not. Therefore, I choose my stance at the last sentence of my introductory paragraph that reads “Regardless of these arguments, nothing is accepted without evidence to support one’s claim”. I chose to remain unbiased because I felt that if I leaned more towards one side then I might become convinced that one side is better than the other, and that is not my intention. My intention for this paper was to make sure the audience was aware of both side’s existence, and their strengths and weaknesses. The second objective asked to use sources from the City College Online Database. Although it was part of the assignment, it is important to always make sure the sources incorporated in any writing is reliable. Otherwise, the paper may prove to be misleading and untrustworthy. Paraphrasing, quoting, summarizing, and analyzing information are all parts of what it means to have mastered objective three. Within my body paragraphs, I made sure I used paraphrasing and quoting at least once so that I can hone these skills. In my scientific controversy paper, I integrated these skills to the best of my ability and feel satisfied, thereby accomplishing the objective.
In the first low-stakes assignment, students were asked to analyze the writing style of an author in the New York Times science section. Naturally, I wanted to write about an article that most captured my attention. After skimming through most of the articles, I decided to write on the author that wrote about the new astronaut spacesuit. In doing so I realized I hardly ever analyze someone else’s writing this closely unless specifically asked. Ultimately, this assignment taught me to get into the habit of paying attention to the style of any authors writing and reflect on how you would write it differently. The course learning objectives that were achieved in this assignment were: engage in genre analysis and multi-modal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary context and beyond. When closely analyzing the structure of another person’s writing, I noticed how well I was able to understand smaller details such as the genre and main idea. As more time passed, I remember thinking about how I would be able to relay the message stronger and more efficiently. The main reason why I argue that I have in fact accomplished this course learning objective is due to what I wrote in the second paragraph about my strategy on improving this author’s composition. My suggestion involved a more efficient route in explaining the characteristics of the new spacesuit so that the information is organized and concise. In many ways, this way of thinking is beneficial when it comes to using the skills you learned in your own writing. This assignment strengthened my perspective of writing in seeing how other people write for the sciences.
The next low-stakes assignment dealt with integrating our thoughts on the writing of another author in the New York Times science section. In my opinion, this assignment aided us in building up our analysis skills. Part of being a competent writer is being able to analyze other people’s writing. In the making of this assignment, I took the initiative to write a deeply analyzed paper on the article, New Electric Eel is Most Shocking Yet, by Emma Goldberg. From the start, I engaged with the article on a personal level. Letting the reader know my thoughts on electric eels, and their capability to discharge electricity as a means of self-defense. Soon after, I guided the reader on my thinking processes as I was reading the article. I spoke about what the article was saying, and things that captured my attention. For example, in my paper the eel’s ability to shock things was what I was most questioning; I was not able to comprehend how any animal is was able to do such a thing. However, as I continued reading, it soon became clear why. The electricity produced by the eel was a byproduct of its cells discharging electricity as a self-defense mechanism, which I found to be most interesting throughout the whole article. The course learning objective that was accomplished as a result of this assignment was: acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility. This was mostly due to how I analyzed the work of Goldberg’s writing and was able to draw conclusions. To further add on, writing about what I was reading made analyzing more simpler, and is why annotating is a good skill to master. In the second paragraph of this assignment, I included personal questions I had after reading this article, and perhaps suggestions on future research. This assignment tough me that analyzing writing is just as important and writing itself
The task for the last low-stakes assignment was to write a product review on a household item. We were expected to create our own criteria in order to evaluate the chosen product. When given this assignment I was puzzled as to what item I would choose, but then it became clear that the most logical items to choose were the ones I use regularly. Following this logic, I decided to review the study desk I use on a regular basis to work on the assignment. Now, I realize the true purpose of this assignment was to see how well students were able to describe the product at its best and worst moments. I believe this assignment to be a prerequisite in preparation to write the high-stakes technical description assignment. With the help of this assignment I was able to meet the following course learning objective: enhance strategies for reading, revising, editing and self-assessment. Because I believe the purpose of the product review was to aid us in practicing to write our technical description, the product review was merely a draft of something bigger. When really thinking about it, all the low-stakes assignments were given to prepare us for the high-stakes assignment, and to hone our writing and reading skills. Regardless of these assumptions, I do not entirely believe to have completely achieved this course learning objective because of not being able to outline or plan out most of my assignments. Knowing that making outlines help in the long run, I really do not develop any unless asked by an instructor to create one. I think this is because I never really had trouble writing essays without one. I can outline the entire essay in my head as I go along with the flow, and I do not know if that would be considered good or bad. Nonetheless, good writers outline their papers, which is why I insist on further working to achieve this objective. For the moment I merely touched base with this objective, the hard work is still a long road ahead.
After mentioning almost all the objective I have achieved in these assignments. There is one that remains unachieved, in my opinion. That is: develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. Even though one of the high-stakes assignments was to write a research paper (not included in the portfolio) in groups, I believe the course of completing this assignment could have been better. Personally, I prefer to be independent, I find it difficult to rely on others in completing major tasks. However, in the science community scientist often have to work in large groups in order to get work done faster. In taking the time to evaluate myself, I realize how far I am from truly achieving this goal. Which means I just have to work harder.
The past writing assignments have helped me better understand how much I have grown not just as a writer, but also as a reader. They have also shown me what I have left to improve on. Writing is an important attribute to have because the better you are at it, the more people will begin to take you seriously with what it is you are trying to communicate. As someone aspiring to pursue a career in science, I fully appreciate all the important skills this course has taught me. In the area that I have yet to improve on, I will make sure I work hard to acquire those skills needed within the science community. Besides how this course changed me, my perspective of writing has also evolved during the course of the semester. I used to never concern myself with the audience I am writing to, but after taking this course, I now realize how taking the audience into account can help guide your paper in truly connecting to the general public. This course required me to put a lot of effort, however, in the end, the hard work paid off. Not only am I a better writer than when I first started, but this puts me one step closer on the path to a lifelong career in the sciences.
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