The ability to write effectively is a necessary skill any person should acquire at some point in life. Here at Longwood they take this very seriously by not only requiring multiple levels of English courses but also incorporating writing intensive assignments into many of the Biology courses. This was even taken to another level of complexity by introducing different styles of scientific writing to broaden our skills. Some of the courses that have emphasized different writing styles are Comprehensive Human Anatomy and Physiology I, Genetics, and Cell Biology.
In my Comprehensive Human Anatomy and Physiology I course our first lab project was intended to be relevant but quickly executed. The reason behind this was to introduce us to developing our own project ideas and executing our own experimental design. For my project, I investigated the effects different kinds of music had on blood pressure. With the small sample size of 3 people, no statistical significance could be determined from this experiment. However, with that being said from the preliminary data collected, music that was familiar to the person tended to lower blood pressure. For this assignment we were tasked with writing a news article/blog directed towards the general public. This type of writing required us to be able to convert scientific heavy information into general information that most people, without a degree in biology, could understand. I found that this type of short general audience writing was actually quite fun to write like I could actually help inform the public. With this style, I also learned how to format the article into columns, simple figures, and hyperlinked citations. Below is my news article report for this project which I wrote in the Fall of 2019.
Blood Pressure vs. “Relaxing” Music
In Genetics, I learned a different style of writing called a research lab report. This is the most common kind of writing within the scientific community. For this project, I investigated the use of lead-sensitive E. coli to detect gunshot residue (GSR). This experiment was the third part of a larger project called MicRobo Cop which is genetically modified E. coli that will be able to detect 3 GSR compounds (lead, antimony, and barium). For this part, we were specifically modifying the bacteria to change colors when in the presence of lead which was successful based on the data collected. For this project, I learned to write a research lab report. This style of writing is very standard and requires sections such as an abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and references. For this I learned how to make figures and tables with appropriate legends as well as how to correctly format and use in-text citations. This was not my first research lab report nor my last, but I feel like this project shows how this style is written for a relatively short project. Below is my research report for the project which I wrote in the Fall of 2018.
Lead-sensitive Escherichia coli in the presence of Gun Shot Residue
Another very common style of scientific writing is a literature review. These are pieces of literature that gather information on a topic to bring new ideas or questions into the discussion. For my Cell Biology course, we were challenged to pick a topic of our choice and write a “Mini History” literature review. I decided that I wanted to write about DNA and how that was discovered and how it that research has evolved. For this style of writing, instead of conducting experiments like the previous two, it requires a ton of reading and analyzing. This was something that I was not a fan of because I didn’t really see the point. However, I have learned to appreciate this style of writing because it can be very useful to read someone else’s review when I am the one trying to gather information on a topic. Below is my mini history literature review that I wrote in the Spring of 2019.
The History Behind the Discovery of DNA
As you can see, there are many types of scientific writing that can be learned, and they all provide different benefits. I am very grateful to have this knowledge so that can use it in future jobs/research careers. I will not only be able to gather information for a literature review, but I will also be able to use that for my research reports which I can then convert into a general audience paper so that more people can learn about the importance of research.