Advanced Writing for the Sciences Reflection
Throughout the course of Advanced Writing for the Sciences, our goal was to learn and develop a strong understand for the use of scientific rhetoric to communicate with various audiences. Rhetoric, the overlying theme of our class, can be defined as an effective style of communication that is incorporated in writing to persuade a variety of audiences. Within scientific rhetoric, key aspects that we needed to understand in order to grasp a full understand of the course consisted of communicating with your target audience as well as using specific science terminology in the correct manner. To enhance and strengthen our ability to display these skills, activities such as blog posts, short readings, class discussions and major assignments were assigned all to ensure individual growth. While keep all this in mind, course objectives were set in the beginning of the semester to work towards, as these will truly determine the level of knowledge retained.
Communicating with a target audience played a tremendous role in this course of science writing this semester. When speaking to a certain group, it’s key to not only use specific terminology that is tailored to them to obtain their attention, but you must manage your level of persuasiveness as well. This semester, our final project was an assignment that provided each individual the opportunity to help a non-profit organization through the Roger Williams Community Partnership Center (CPC), where students were challenged by helping the company in any way that we needed. For my project, I worked with an organization called the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Foundation, who strives to provide support, education and resources for anyone who has been impacted by cancer. Entailed in this research project, my goal was to seek ways that emotional health can increase one’s risk for cancer and present them my finding. With this assignment, my growth came directly from shaping an argument for a specific audience and framing the information I wanted to present in an effect manner, so that my audience would feel engaged and entertained. A second activity that has helped me grow through this course was class discussions. As an individual who struggling with speaking in front of others, science writing enabled me to grow in this field as we were tasked with multiple presentations. One presentation in particular that has enabled me to learn was on a book that we had read titled “Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrete of the Air Around Us” by Sam Kean. With this presentation, my group had to present our finding and how it pertained to science writing by identifying the authors tone, target audience, message and style. These types of activities enable me to develop confidence as that trait is one that I lacked prior to this course.
Incorporating and identifying specific terminology was the second major component within the discourse of science writing. Our first exposure to scientific terminology came from readings assigned in class as students were to identify key terms that the author incorporated. Important terms that were highlighted through the course consisted of: genre, speech acts, discourse community, rhetoric and genre systems/sets. Using science vocabulary was critical as it went to show you can connect with a completely different audience solely by using terms that pertain to the field as it increases your credibility and makes your argument more persuasive. For a more in-depth analysis of using terminology, check out my reflection of my preliminary analysis.
The course of Advanced Writing for the Science placed a heavy emphasis on learning how to identify who pays attention to science writing, as well as connecting with those who do value it. Through activities such as reading passages and engaging in class reflections, I was able to develop some of the target goals that this course sought to strengthen, such as connecting with target audiences and the key to analysis. As a business student, I took this course with the vision of not only learning something outside of my comfort zone, but primarily to become a more well-rounded. This course enabled me to develop a true passion for learning various genres of writing outside of business and how other authors use rhetoric to gain their authors attention. Overall, this class has not only developed me into a more structured thinker, but has opened a window of opportunity for my future as I know have a more diverse background when talking about the rhetoric of writing.
Communicating with a target audience played a tremendous role in this course of science writing this semester. When speaking to a certain group, it’s key to not only use specific terminology that is tailored to them to obtain their attention, but you must manage your level of persuasiveness as well. This semester, our final project was an assignment that provided each individual the opportunity to help a non-profit organization through the Roger Williams Community Partnership Center (CPC), where students were challenged by helping the company in any way that we needed. For my project, I worked with an organization called the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Foundation, who strives to provide support, education and resources for anyone who has been impacted by cancer. Entailed in this research project, my goal was to seek ways that emotional health can increase one’s risk for cancer and present them my finding. With this assignment, my growth came directly from shaping an argument for a specific audience and framing the information I wanted to present in an effect manner, so that my audience would feel engaged and entertained. A second activity that has helped me grow through this course was class discussions. As an individual who struggling with speaking in front of others, science writing enabled me to grow in this field as we were tasked with multiple presentations. One presentation in particular that has enabled me to learn was on a book that we had read titled “Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrete of the Air Around Us” by Sam Kean. With this presentation, my group had to present our finding and how it pertained to science writing by identifying the authors tone, target audience, message and style. These types of activities enable me to develop confidence as that trait is one that I lacked prior to this course.
Incorporating and identifying specific terminology was the second major component within the discourse of science writing. Our first exposure to scientific terminology came from readings assigned in class as students were to identify key terms that the author incorporated. Important terms that were highlighted through the course consisted of: genre, speech acts, discourse community, rhetoric and genre systems/sets. Using science vocabulary was critical as it went to show you can connect with a completely different audience solely by using terms that pertain to the field as it increases your credibility and makes your argument more persuasive. For a more in-depth analysis of using terminology, check out my reflection of my preliminary analysis.
The course of Advanced Writing for the Science placed a heavy emphasis on learning how to identify who pays attention to science writing, as well as connecting with those who do value it. Through activities such as reading passages and engaging in class reflections, I was able to develop some of the target goals that this course sought to strengthen, such as connecting with target audiences and the key to analysis. As a business student, I took this course with the vision of not only learning something outside of my comfort zone, but primarily to become a more well-rounded. This course enabled me to develop a true passion for learning various genres of writing outside of business and how other authors use rhetoric to gain their authors attention. Overall, this class has not only developed me into a more structured thinker, but has opened a window of opportunity for my future as I know have a more diverse background when talking about the rhetoric of writing.