Final Reflection

Final Research Paper and Course Reflection

Taking the Writing for the Sciences course and writing the final paper on a crucial topic has been a great experience where I had learned more than I expected. The main aspect of the course that I have mainly taken away from, is how to train the mind to think on every social issue. Writing the research paper on the injustices done in the country’s Criminal Justice System allowed me to develop rhetorical sensibility, utilize strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing and assessing myself. While preparing for the presentation, I have also kept the audience expectations in mind and carefully formulated and articulated a stance that reflected in the type of works I want to do in the future.

A main portion of the research paper required the usage of logos, ethos, and pathos. Through these, my passion for writing escalated. I never believed I was a strong writer, but I knew I had the potential to comprehend information and reflect them based on issues that surrounded me. Carefully, putting together thoughts and make sense of them, is difficult. After Professor Matyakubova, taught us how to use our prior knowledge to discuss a topic of our interest, narrowing down ideas became simple. Every week, there was an essential tip to take to incorporate in our essays. For instance, I recall learning about embedded videos in our essays, which I included in my previous argumentative essay and this. Perhaps, I was able to do the same for another course paper this semester.

Since, revising, drafting and reading were major points of this course, it ensures me to think of every paper as the final paper and to never underestimate the next thought. Every time, I edited my paper, a new thought reflected my personality. On an academic level, this course was a writing one, but honestly, this course gave me the freedom to express my thoughts and share them with my fellow peers unlike it is done in other course. Likewise, turning to revise each other's work and sharing our views on articles, videos, and even on small comments, allowed us to connect to our own writings. For instance, one day we discussed on criminals in jail who were given one day to spend a day with their children inspired me to write a paper on wrongful convictions that had similar people yearning to go back to their families for the last time. There was another day where we watched small clips on bystander social experiments and tourette's syndrome, all successfully helping me when I was writing my final paper. Although, some students may complain that the workload in the class as well as for the final paper (annotated bibliography, scripted interview, surveys, research map, outlines) were heavy, I believe it aided us in ways we did not think it would have. In the end, I enjoyed writing for every assignment and continue to use skills learned in my future science courses.