Shaskia Mateo Encarnacion
Writing for the Sciences

Professor Zayas

May, 17, 2025

Reflective Self- Assessment

During this semester Taking the Writing for the sciences course I learned all sorts of new concepts of writing styles while being able to relate it to science, which is not your usual English class. I was able to go from translating Jargon to writing my own Research papers and more. In this essay I will discuss my progress throughout the spring semester taking a science related english class.

Throughout this course, I’ve learned to appreciate the value of linguistic diversity of all my peers, especially considering English is not my first language either. But I quickly realized what a powerful tool communication is. Being able to recognize different language styles, dialects and cultural expressions has helped me better understand the audience and context. By embracing these differences I’ve learned to adapt my writing and tone more effectively depending on purpose among other values such as honesty. This awareness has deepened my rhetorical sensibility and made my writing more inclusive and responsive. 

When It comes to enhancing my strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing, I have learned how important It is to check your work over and over again that way being able to fix every single thing that may not seem like the best approach to do something. For example when In class we did a translating Jargon project in groups, We encounter a difficult task in which we had no idea what we were going to do, all the jargon and words we had never seen before had our minds twisted, but the thing that helped the most was reading it over and over again and little by little write the things we were understanding until we finally had the concept of what we were reading.

During my writing this semester I struggle with balancing my personal goals with what my audience expects, especially when working with diverse genres and mediums. I realized that while I may want to express my ideas a certain way, I also need to consider what is the best way to reach people and resonate with them. For example when presenting my “Myomectomy vs Hysterectomy” topic to the class. I already knew everything that there was to know due to my extensive research but I was also aware that this wasn’t the case for my peers. When acknowledging this idea I was able to explain it to every single one of them in simple terms for them to understand as well as answering their questions. 

One important part of my growth as a writer was learning how to engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing. Through peer reviews, discussion boards and more, I was able to both give and receive valuable feedback from my classmates, taking and considering their ideas was a step closer to succeed in this class. If we are being completely honest, the days when I had peer review workshops were my favorite because those were the days in which I was able to have the most interaction with my classmates. Passing our computers and Ipads around, reading each other’s work really nurtured my abilities to discuss, read and write all at the same time as well as taking examples from their own work to incentivize my own. 

Another key part of my development this semester was learning to analyze different genres and multimodal composing. By studying how writing works I began to understand how purpose, audience, and structure shape each piece. I applied this knowledge by creating projects that combined text with visuals, for example the science in the movies project in which we picked a movie and related it to science including making a slideshow presentation. This helped me see that my writing isn’t limited to just essays but It can take many different forms depending on context and which way you desire to communicate it. Exploring these possibilities expanded my understanding of what writing can do beyond academic settings.

Building on my growth in other areas, I also learned how to confidently formulate a clear stance in my writing. Instead of just summarizing sources or presenting neutral information, I began to develop my own perspective and weave it through my work. One example is when we were writing a literary review in class. At first I struggled because in a literary review I was not able to analyze the content and discuss my own personal stand on my topic, Instructions were “tell me what the experts are saying” which to me just mean “spitting out facts after facts”, but after a while of writing it I was able to formulate my own sentences without getting too comfortable and being able to tell you exactly what you need to know. This shift helped me write with a greater clarity while learning more deeply about my topic. 

When looking for sources for our research paper, I practiced using a variety of research tools to make sure I was getting credible, peer reviewed sources. I had a little background from past classes navigating with the City College libraries, but throughout this course I became more comfortable because during workshops we learned a few tricks, like filters to shorten out research and find exactly the articles we wanted. These research skills helped me support my arguments with strong evidence and improve the overall quality of work. 

By the end of the semester, I had made significant progress in how I work with my sources and writing. I learned how to carefully evaluate the credibility and relevance of each piece of writing I’m able to call my own. I also practiced integrating sources more smoothly by quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing in ways that supported my ideas rather than repeating information over and over again. Synthesizing multiple perspectives and analyzing them in relation to my own work helped me create more developed and thoughtful writing. In conclusion, this semester taking the course writing for the sciences has made a huge improval in my style of writing and analyzing skills, if anything it has made me smarter due to all the science behind the topics me and all my classmates had picked. Overall I can see the growth within my ability to open a blank page and pour my thoughts and opinions in it.