The Self-Assessment Essay

The course, writing for the sciences, ENGL 21003, was a required course for my major, biology. Some of the takeaways I got from this class were strengthening my reading and critical thinking skills in which I plan to adapt to my future professional and academic studies. The course was composed of four main papers, which were in informative review, position paper, research proposal, and lastly, a critical research paper. Each assessment required reading reports and studies from a variety of researchers in different scientific fields, which really taught me to critically read, analyze and potentially find holes within articles or reports. I feel like I made some progress in writing papers when it comes to acquiring research, and gearing my writing towards a specific audience in hopes for a better understanding for the reader. This course came with various learning outcomes that further helped me improve my skills as a reader and writer.

The first learning course outcome I learned in this course was exploring and analyzing various genres and rhetorical situations of writing. One of the science genres was an informative paper which I was required to inform readers on the a particular topic or research issue without taking a stance. In my case, I informed readers on the topic of cloning, all while providing the positive and negative stance on the topic. The second science genre was the position paper in which I was required to take a position on a topic whilst addressing the concessions and counterarguments. I wrote about alternative wind energy and held a position that wind energy was superior to all other forms of alternative energy. Yet another science genre was the research proposal which required me to develop a research topic with the components of a hypothesis, designing an effective study (background information and methods) and create an argument for why further research should be conducted. The last of the science genres was the critical research paper which required me to address the information/background, results and outcomes of a research topic in depth. The topic for both my research proposal and critical research paper was the relationship between race and having hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol).

The second learning course outcome was developing strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing. For each assignment, with consideration of the genre, I read articles of the same genre to get a grasp or idea about how to structure my paper. Then I would read articles that focused on my chosen topics to help brainstorm what my thesis was, my stance on the topic, and what points I would make in my paper. With my position paper, research proposal and critical research paper, I would more carefully choose points that aligned with my stance. In those particular three genres, if I made a point that did not align with my stance, then I would create a rebuttal  with evidence that said otherwise. When organizing my informative and position paper, I started with an introduction, had one body paragraph for background information, addressed each of my points in a paragraph each and then ended off with a conclusion. With the research proposal, I organized it by having an introduction section, background, methods and outcomes to end off. The critical research paper consisted of an abscart, introduction/ background section, methods section, results/discussion section and a conclusion.

The third learning course outcome was negotiating my own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium and rhetorical situations. In this course, I wrote for two different types of audiences: primary and secondary audiences. The primary audience being audience that would be familiar with scientific language and are knowledgeable about most science topics such as scientists. Whereas a secondary audience would not be familiar with those aspects, an example being the average American, or the general public. In the informative paper and position paper, I wrote for a secondary audience so I adapted my writing style by using adaptive features like visual diagrams and definitions. As for the research proposal and critical research paper I neglected to use adaptive measure because I audience did not call for it.

The fourth learning course outcome was to engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. Prior to writing each paper we did peer reviews, blackboard posts and group work in class. Those collaborative and social aspects helped to gain better understanding of what my purpose and goal was when writing my paper as well as receiving supportive feedback from other classmates.  For example, when we did group work prior to the position paper on renewable energy sources, I was able to collaboratively list out the aspects that supported my argument and concessions to address in my paper with my group.

The fifth learning course outcome was understanding and using print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences. The purpose in using visual imagery in my paper was to help with my readers’ understanding similar to what I did in my informative paper with my diagram of the cloning process of Dolly the sheep. Another purpose in using visual imagery in my paper was to strengthen my argument like similar to my position paper when I used a diagram that broke down the decibels of noise of a wind turbine in comparison to other household appliances to further prove that wind turbines are not as loud as they are made out to be.

The sixth learning course outcome was locating research sources in the library’s database/ archives and on the internet and evaluating them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness and bias. One resource I used to find articles in support of my position paper was the CUNY/CCNY “Opposing Views” database. I was required to use this, and find two sources in which either opposed or supported my argument in the position paper. This was very helpful as I found multiple texts that provided me with valid arguments against wind turbines, but I was simultaneously able to find articles to make a counter argument as well. The use of this source as well as article outside the database and on the internet for the position paper was the main way in which I achieved the sixth learning outcome.

The seventh learning course outcome was composing texts that integrate my stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis and argumentation. There were numerous times where I integrated my position with my sources. For example, “‘It is wise to diversify the sources of our energy. But the money and legislative effort invested in large-scale wind generation could be spent much more effectively to achieve the goal of reducing our use of fossil and nuclear fuels…wind farms do not bring about any reduction in the use of conventional power plants. Requiring the upgrading of power plants to be more efficient and cleaner would actually do something rather than simply support the image of “green” power that energy companies profit from while in fact doing nothing to reduce pollution or fuel imports.’” (Rosenbloom 2006). I used this sentence from one of my sources in my position paper to give light to the opposing argument. I would later integrate a different source that countered this argument which was “‘Studies show that wind turbines and solar photovoltaic installations now produce more energy than they consume…from an energetic perspective, the wind industry can easily afford lots of storage, enough to provide more than three days of uninterrupted power.’ (Wind Power Is Affordable and Has Low Environmental Impact  2015).” This excerpt was used to make a counter argument to the opposing argument. The position paper was one of the main mechanisms that allowed me to achieve the seventh learning outcome.

The eighth and final learning course outcome was strengthening my source with the use of certain practices, including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources. There were numerous techniques used to decipher difficult sources. Some of the things I did were reading articles in groups during lecture, in which my peers and I would attempt to create a summary of certain sections of the article that we were assigned. For example, in the Morales article, the professor assigned various groups of 4 to be held responsible for different sections of the article, and each group had to summarize their sections. Through this, we were able to decipher one of the more difficult articles in the class.

All in all, I have developed many course learning outcomes from this class. They have collectively assisted me in becoming more comfortable in writing a paper of different science genres. But more generally, it has helped me to feel less intimidated by writing any type of paper being that science writing can be more challenging. I was able to conquer such challenges by learning to differentiate my writing while considering my target audience, reading/ writing more critically, and using credible sources and visual aids to obtain a well rounded paper each time.