My Reflective Journey as a Scientific Writer

I am currently reading a book entitled The Body Electric: Electromagnetism

and the Foundation of Life. The author, Dr. Robert Becker, is both an orthopedic
surgeon and pioneer in the research between bioelectricity and regeneration. Becker
asserts, Scientific results that arent reported might as well not exist. Theyre like the
sound of one hand clapping. For scientists, communication isnt only a responsibility,
its our chief pleasure. This is an exceptional summation of what writing in the
scientific discipline means to me. Yes, we do have an obligation to share research and
information. However, we also derive great satisfaction in the communication of
research. Our ultimate purpose for finding new knowledge is that we can advance
society and improve lives.

Throughout the course of the semester, I have completed three different works
of writing and believe that I exceeded the goals formulated by the Northeastern
Writing Program. For the first assignment, we had to select an article that
demonstrated writing in our discipline to analyze the purpose, and by extension
success, of said article. I choose an article based on a speech by the World Health
Organizations Director General about obesity and diabetes. In addition to
establishing a purpose, we also had to comment on whether this work confirmed our
expectations of writing in the scientific discipline and how it aligned with our own
writing abilities. These assignments coincide with the goals stated by Northeasterns
Writing Program. We were tasked to evaluate the audience, medium, and significance
of such work, as well as practice critical reading strategies. The audience for the
original speech was the health and medical professionals present at the [Annual
Meeting of the National Academy of Medicine] conference, a specific discourse
community. In my Unit 1 introduction I explained the advantage of adapting an online
article from a speech, The advantage of having an article adapted from her speech is
that it can be dispersed to reach a wider and more diverse audience extending to
anyone with interests in health and health policy. This provided an acute description
of the benefits for expanding the medium of this information. I addressed the genre as
an opinion editorial and examined the significance of the article. I concluded my
assignment by reflecting on this articles relationship to medical writing, I find that
this text does match my expectations of writing in my field. Doctors of osteopathic
medicine (DOs) employ a more holistic method of treatment where patients are seen
as people and not just symptoms, when compared to the traditional medical doctors
(MDs). Doctors have a responsibility to prevent disease when possible, which is a
goal of this article. Perhaps by educating more people on the dangers faced by
diabetes and obesity, we can advance as a healthier society.

Another aspect of this assignment was to critically read and reflect on the
strategies employed by the author. I analyzed the diction and the papers
organization of paragraphs and formatting in sending a message. I found that the use
of short sentences in small paragraphs with non-technical diction succeeded in letting
the facts speak for themselves, without the need for superfluous or repetitive words
and pictures to convey her message. For the Unit 1 assignment we were responsible
for accumulating direct evidence from our article and related sources. My article
originally spanned 4 pages, so I had to be very selective when generating and
pursuing lines of inquiry on what information would be the most relevant to my
message. There were many applicable quotations for the assignment but to avoid
redundancy exactly 12 excerpts were included in the final draft. This includes a mix
of points from both the article and sections of the Hippocratic Oath. When quoting the
article I included the page numbers the quotes can be found on in superscript next to
the footnote. As I said in the Unit 1 assignment, the purpose of this editorial,
which is to reflect on future economic, political, and health-related consequences of
an overweight worldwide population. I found direct relevance between the
Hippocratic Oath and this message, especially in the challenges faced by health
professionals in the sharing of accurate, medical knowledge with the general
populace. Both the article and the Hippocratic Oath was appropriately cited using the
suggested CSE formatting. One overall area of improvement for this assignment
would have been taking my analysis further. I felt that some of my thoughts were
obvious and didnt need to be written out but this is not the attitude to have when
writing. In future assignment I should include all of my thoughts.

For the Unit 2 assignment we had to switch gears from analyzing to creating
an example of writing in our discourse community. We were asked to find an existing
gap in knowledge and do our best to remedy the missing information. I decided to
take a minimalistic experimental protocol from a chemical synthesis class and expand
it. The goal was to break down the advanced nature of the procedure and make it
easier to understand by students. I would have been very intrigued to hear my
chemistry professors opinion on the final product. Had I shown the work to him or
other students in my class, I could have incorporated their suggestions. The revision
club aspect of this assignment was very useful. Specific recommendations by my
partners, Amber Roberson and Rammy Dang, greatly improved my assignment. I am
particularly grateful for the feedback offered by Amber. Her comments reflected an
insightful mind and showed a large amount of time dedicated to her reviews. She saw
areas of improvement as well as offered suggestions for improvement, seen in the
comment This feels a bit awkward to me. Maybe you could rephrase to something
like To avoid interference from atmospheric water, a nitrogen atmosphere must be
established. Hopefully the revision club repertoire benefited both parties.

I was also able to offer revision-based responses to my peers by providing

grammatical suggestions and pointed out areas that could be expanded for claritys
sake. In Rammys assignment I pointed out places were capitalization and
punctuation should be changed for continuity. As this assignment involved the heavy
use of graphics I also provided suggestion on improving the aesthetic of the
document, One overall suggestion would be finding ways to balance the paragraphs
so there is the same amount of space between them? I realize youve ordered it the
way you have it to give spacing for the pictures but the uneven length between
paragraphs draws my attention more than the text. I took great lengths in making
sure my comments were both kind and constructive. I greatly valued the revision club
aspect of this course because I firmly believe that collaboration is key to growth in the
scientific community.

The Unit 3 assignment was by far the longest and most comprehensive work
in the course. It challenged our ability to assimilate and synthesize information, assert
an opinion, and utilize multiple forms of evidence to support claims. At the start of
this assignment I did not know very much about immunotherapy. Through a Biology
of Cancer class I knew of the fields existence and had a basic idea of what
immunotherapy entailed. It was only through creating a paper about the history,
current applications, and potential future of immunotherapy that I developed a better
appreciation for this science. Having to specifically organize my thoughts into a
review article allowed me to communicate my new knowledge in a persuasive and
comprehensive manner. Throughout my research I developed a personal opinion on
what I believe to be the most promising technique of immunotherapy, We review
three main divisions of immunotherapy including monoclonal antibodies, immune
checkpoint inhibitors, and cancer vaccines. We will emphasize the strengths and
weaknesses of the three approaches and determine the most promising option of
cancer treatment to be through monoclonal antibody techniques. My stance is plainly
stated after I clear and brief outline for the rest of my unit 3 final draft.

My revision club partners for Unit 3 included Eric Jacques and Eric Dahl. Eric
Jacques expressed his desire to be a physical therapist and centered many of his
assignments on this topic. Having worked in a physical therapy clinic I have personal
experience and perspectives to draw on when providing him with feedback. I believe I
had a better understanding of certain techniques that allowed me to ask more pointed
questions. In my revised version of Eric Jacques rough draft I commented:
Something I remember from working in my PT clinic was how patients frequently
became stronger and more stable in the affected leg, which in turn caused slight injury
to the healthy leg. Maybe include the significance of making both legs healthier? I
knew from personal experience it was common for people to rehabilitate the injured
leg resulting in the non-affected leg receiving less attention, which often results in its
own injury. I suggested discussing the importance of doing exercises on both legs to
prevent an imbalance and future problems.

Throughout this personal essay, I have looked back on my writing examples

throughout the course of the semester in order to both reflect on my writing process
and assess my ability in meeting the Northeastern Writing Program goals. I purposely
choose different topics for my essays in order to gain comprehensive collection of
writing samples. I can acknowledge there will likely be many different types of
writing I will be required to complete, which is why I felt more benefit would be
derived from a diverse range of literature types.
Self-Assessment

Portfolio Grade: A-

I believe I have devoted a significant amount time and effort to this course to warrant
getting a high mark. Through each assignment I have broken down the goals to isolate
what I believe to be the most relevant to the scientific writing I envision in my future.
Writing has always been both enjoyable and therapeutic to me. Therefore, when I
have the opportunity to combine such work with learning more about my field I seize
the opportunity. I believe I have meet or exceeded all of the goals outlined by the
Northeastern Writing Program.

I realize that no writing is perfect and I can acknowledge I still have many
opportunities for growth. Between my first and second assignments, I received many
comments regarding not taking my analysis far enough. I continuously tried to work
on this as the semester progressed, often causing me to surpass the word limit. Each
project provided new avenues to explore and question. I honestly feel like I was able
to grow as both a writer and a scientist throughout my journey this semester.