I believe it is an essential skill for any scientist to be able to communicate to the general population and other scientists outside of your discipline, both orally and in writing. For my sophomore seminar class, I had to write a general audience paper on my review paper topic, which was food allergies in dogs and cats. This was my first time writing something like this, and my professor gave us a lot of helpful tips on how to write this way. It was different from all the things I have written before, but I was proud of the result. This paper allowed me to present a lot of confusing information to a general audience in a way that they will understand and care about.
In my vertebrate physiology class, we had to write overviews of science articles for the general population. These assignments were to reflect off of articles found in “Inside JEB”, JEB standing for the Journal of Experimental Biology. This class allowed me to grow in my writing to the general audience, and I believe that this skill will follow me through my journey through veterinary school.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1i-CJCGaw8pmW4tn_a2-TbeT0w6yww5m8