This semester in “Writing for the Sciences” has helped improve my writing abilities vastly. I have developed many skills and improved many skills as well through the many different assignments. Some of the skills developed include proper formatting of the essays, how to properly summarize and respond to articles as well as using in text citations and creating a bibliography page. This class and Professor Coppola helped provide skills that can be used in future classes.

Through the formal introduction letter assignment, I was able to fully learn what goes into writing a business letter. I learned all the components of a business letter as well as how to properly format the letter. The letter allowed myself to introduce myself to Professor Coppola and explain my interest in science as well as my goals for the class. Learning the foundations of a business letter will be very helpful as it can always be used in the professional setting. It also provided Professor Coppola with a benchmark on my writing abilities. I was also able to evaluate how I structure and format my writing pieces.

The three summary and response assignments helped in being able to summarize an article as well as responding to the article. It also helped with excluding myself and using “I” in the article as that was a big problem for me when I began writing the summary and responses. Professor Coppola explained how to properly summarize the article. Professor Coppola also thoroughly explained how to respond as that was something I personally struggled with. My ability to properly respond to the articles as well avoid using a first person view and “I” vastly improved and can be used in all classes in the future.

The technical descriptions consisted of the object description as well as the process description. The object description focused on choosing an object, describing how it works and the parts that make up that object. I chose to write about the sphygmomanometer otherwise known as the blood pressure cuff  as it relates to my career field of choice. The object description helped in properly describing the object focusing on background information to help the reader understand the object and its purpose. The process description along with the object description helped in describing the process as it was very similar to the object description the only difference being you are described g how the process fully works. Both assignments related to my intended career path which interested me and helped me learn more about that path. Both assignments also helped in learning how to format the descriptions in a visually appealing way to better help the reader understand what is being explained.

The annotated bibliography assignment also helped in improving my writing abilities.  The purpose of the assignment was to introduce ourselves to what an annotated bibliography is, where it is used and how to create one. This information was very helpful to me as I had not known how to properly construct an annotated bibliography.  The annotated bibliography assignment was used in conjunction with the writing of our scientific controversy paper which helped tremendously in the bibliography page of that paper. The sources used were those which were included in our scientific controversy paper which helped us understand how to properly cite an article.

The scientific controversy paper helped improve my writing abilities drastically. This paper was a research paper which required us to find credible articles on a specific controversy relating to our preferred field of study or career. This assignment helped greatly in my ability to first find credible articles, break down information and quotes from the articles, how to format the essay, use proper in text citation and how to create the bibliography page. We learned of many ways to find credible articles one way being utilizing the CUNY database in order to find peer reviewed articles. After finding peer reviewed articles, Professor Coppola explained ways we can break down the information in the article in order to find quotes which can be used in the essay. Professor Coppola explained that we can break down each paragraph by finding whether the paragraph provides a thesis, a supporting argument, or a counter argument. I will be able to use this strategy in many other classes as it is a useful tactic in finding useful information within an article. I also learned how ro properly apply in text citations as well as creating the bibliography page.  

The group paper and slides presentation helped in my writing experiences as well. The group paper also helped in working as a team with other students, dividing work evenly as well as combining the work so it flows smoothly. The group presentation helped improve my public speaking abilities as well as choosing the right information to include on my slides. The group paper along with the scientific controversy paper helped improve my abilities to find credible sources. I also utilized other abilities learned from other assignments like compiling information from the articles to include in my essay, using in text citations and creating a bibliography page. Working in a group also taught us how to evenly divide the work amongst ourselves as well as once finished with work combining it to flow smoothly. The group presentation helped improve my public speaking abilities as that is something I have struggled with greatly in the past. It also helped with picking the right information to include on the slides as this was important because when presenting you don’t want to be reading off the slides as Professor Coppola explained. Choosing the right information to include was an important skill learned from this assignment.