Abstract:
This self-assessment essay focuses on this semester of the course writing for sciences. It reflects on how my writing skills have improved overall throughout this class during the semester. It further reflects on how this class was very beneficial towards my overall development as a writer. This essay compares the papers I have written throughout the semester and compares the different writing styles I have used to show my development throughout this course. It will further explain how some course learning objectives were achieved and how some I had trouble with.
Previous to taking this class my writing skills were about average. However, this courses level of difficulty and intensity increased throughout the writing assignments which allowed me to improve in my writing and allowed me to be able to slowly but surely use different writing styles confidently. Most of the papers that were assigned throughout this semester involved proper research to be able to properly accomplish the task given. Overall this class has made me achieve the course learning objections.
This course allowed me to acknowledge not only mine but others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and to also draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility. For example when reading research articles and trying to extract the information necessary to include in my writing I had to understand the reader and his/her message and content that they have given and be able to incorporate that into my writing. When writing my scientific controversy paper I used many different sources which were written and peer reviewed by different people. I had to make sure I understood the information that was given and then proceeded to incorporate it into my writing a strategical way.
This course also allowed me to enhance my strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing as well as be able to self – assess myself. The writing process for each of the papers I have written required different strategies, this lead to my realization that for these papers that the revising and editing processes differ slightly as well. Before this class, my style of writing was basically writing a draft then do a little bit of revising making it my final paper. However, during the process of writing my research paper, this was no longer my strategy. I then started using my first draft and having is peer-reviewed because there is no bias, they just look for mistakes as well as informing me on ways to improve my writing. I then started narrowing down the information that was necessary and used that for my final paper and used many new ideas I have come up with and left the old ones behind. I realized that peer editing was very important because when reading my own paper I tend to focus on what I find important and wont realize what I am missing or what should not be there. Having a new pair of eyes really benefits in the writing process, and I will now be sure to have multiple people peer edit my papers to reassure that my paper is written well. This evolved my perception of writing tremendously. It allowed me to change my writing strategy and to understand that peer – review can be very beneficial.
Throughout this course I was also able develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. I came to learn that writing can actually become a very social aspect in multiple ways. To me writing was a one person task that did not usually incorporate social skills, however I came to learn that that is not true. For our collaborative research project paper we were assigned a group and had to write a research paper and present our information to an audience through a power point. We had to collaboratively come up with a topic that we were all interested in and would be able to have enough research on which took time and a lot of narrowing down. However, we did come to a conclusion and we based our project on comparing the effectiveness of alternative medicine methods (marijuana, and acupuncture)at managing chronic pain. We each did our own research and shared the information through google drive. Each group member was assigned a section of the paper and we all had incorporate our section onto the PowerPoint presentation. This process taught me that writing is can be very collaborative and beneficial in multiple ways. For example, when doing research each group member found a new piece of information or article that helped towards our paper. This really evolved my perceptions of writing because, previously, to me writing was an individual project with not much collaborative and social aspects but this process really opened my eyes of writing.
One learning objective that I did use a lot throughout this course was practicing using various library resources, online databases, and the internet to locate sources appropriate to my writing assignments. Previously, finding research articles was difficult due to the lack of knowledge for not knowing and understanding how to use the databases, where to look, and which ones are worth looking up. However, due to the classes’ high demand of research I learned to differentiate between reliable and non-reliable sources. I was able to understand the data bases and was able to use the internet to locate the reliable sources appropriate for my writing assignment. This concept was necessary for all the papers written mostly the research paper. This new concept will help me throughout not only my college experience but throughout life.
One task I had more trouble with throughout this course was being able to formulate and articulate a stance through my writing. Taking a stance was very difficult because I was never sure I “chose” the right side. I wasn’t sure if I would have enough information to back up my position. I was always doubting my stance and was never sure if I chose the right one. I plan to practice that throughout my writing and to strengthen my confidence in the stance I take.
I was able to engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond. I was able to comprehend other writers work, how they say it, as well as their effectiveness in their writing. I did this by making sure these articles and papers are reliable. For example, when writing the informative reviews I used articles from The New York Times due to their accuracy. However, I have bumped into many articles that were not reliable enough for me to include in my paper. This will help me immensely throughout my writing assuring no unreliable sources are included in my paper making the information not accurate.
Lastly, I was able to negotiate my own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation. I write with the thought of my audience or readers understanding and how they will perceive my content. I make sure to comprehend and analyze other people’s work as it pertains to science. My goal in writing is to get to my audience in the most clear and coherent way. I want them to understand, benefit and become more knowledgeable on the information I give scientifically. I believe I was able to achieve my goal throughout the semester by writing clearly and coherently. Previous to this class my writing was not as coherent and organized, throughout this semester I learned better ways to organize. For example, for my scientific controversy paper I made sure it was organized in a way that the reader will not get lost , and be able to understand every piece of information clearly. When deciding my stance for my controversy paper which was on Marijuana being used as a medication, I made sure to have enough information to pick a stance. With further research I came to learn that there was not enough information for it to be completely safe or for it to be completely wrong. I decided to take the stance of “there is not enough information, and more studies have to be conducted” .
Writing to me is a form of expression and a way to inform, persuade, educate, and entertain people. Its a form of communication. Writing to me is very important in many ways such as informing people of important information, marking down experiments, persuading people to many different things. In all of the papers I have written this semester it was a form of expression which was to inform my audience. For my informative review on an article called “For Children With Peanut Allergies, F.D.A. Experts Recommend a New Treatment” , it was informing readers of a new treatment for individuals with Peanut Allergies and how this medication can decrease the symptoms.
This class taught me many things that I will forever benefit from during my upcoming classes and in life in general. I will be sure to strengthen the ones I did not spend enough time on and continue to strengthen the ones I have successfully used throughout this class.
