Coming into Writing for the Sciences, I was unsure of how to read a scientific article, let alone analyze and write about one. However, by adhering to the course learning objectives and to each assignment rubric, I gained an understanding as to how to incorporate research papers into a literature review essay, which is a culmination of all the course learning objectives and what I have learned in this class. Through the group lab report and class editing assignments, I was able to gain a greater appreciation for my peers’ usages of grammar to make sentences easier to understand and targeted towards my audience. Other students were able to help me bring new perspectives into my work by suggesting that I add information and provide context to my papers through the peer editing process. Additionally, in the group lab report assignment, each student focused on their specialty and brought many new ideas that I would not have applied if the project were individual.

 

I also learned to analyze both original research and general audience articles and how to convey them onto paper in my own words. I found it best to work slowly, taking time to discuss articles with mentors who were more knowledgeable about the subject to help fully comprehend them and to develop a strong final article. I constantly reread my papers to myself to make sure my words and ideas flowed easily. This helped me most with my transitions; I revised and rearranged sentences, which helped me develop concise and coherent ideas. For example, in my literature review essay, I had to spend days going over ideas and rearranging phrases, paragraphs, and the entire outline to make it as streamlined and easy to read as possible. Although the paper was extremely technical and explaining everything to the reader would have made the paper exceed the word count, I did my best to make it as concise as possible. I also cooperated closely with Orie Shafer, a professor of genetics at CUNY, who authored one of the research articles used in the literature review. Dr. Shafer helped me understand some of the more technical terms of the fly epigenetics, so I could explain it in my own words.

 

For the group lab report, I felt that although each member offered their strengths for developing the paper and poster, much of the work was distributed unevenly due to a lack of communication. We did not have the chance to edit each other’s sections either, since my partners’ portions of the project were finished the night before submission. I would have liked to discuss the division of labor with my partners much more, and also made sure we had enough time to edit our work thoroughly before submission.

 

Throughout the course, I was also able to apply genre analysis to find my exigence and write a paper that adhered to the genre’s norms. The assignments for this class spanned multiple forms of literature. For example, the NY Times article analysis aimed to summarize and analyze a work that was targeted towards the general audience and was easy for  students with little scientific writing knowledge, like me, to understand. Developing on that, the scholarly article analysis used the same research article as the one used in the NY Times assignment, building on the previous assignment. The style of writing used in the NY Times, and the ability to analyze a scientific paper were extremely helpful in the general audience assignment, group lab report, and literature analysis paper, which all required concise summaries of previous research, as well as formulating an interesting article for the audience.

 

Finally, this course strengthened my sourcing and citation skills. Through use of the CCNY library database, I found research articles for my general audience, group lab report, and literature analysis assignments. I also learned how to cite multiple sources in a sentence that synthesizes data and ideas from more than one article. I did not experience much growth in the citation process, since all I had to do was make sure to cite everything that was not original and I could easily consult the textbook on how to cite. However, I did gain experience in using the CSE Name Year system, as shown in my citations in every paper.

 

My perception of scientific writing from the beginning of the semester has changed dramatically. I thought scientific writing would allow for my own voice, but when summarizing scientific research, almost everything on my paper needed citations. I also did not know that most