Something I have become very interested in my last four years has been the idea of scientific communication. That is, being able to break down information so that is actually digestible to anyone who wants to understand it. I have found that over the years practicing reading papers outside of my comfort zone has helped a lot, but nothing is better than talking through what I do not understand. In my sophomore seminar course, Biology 288, we were tasked with a semester long project involving a literature review. It was a hefty assignment with over 25 sources of literature. I needed to know what was important, and what I could use to strengthen my ideas of surgery in small animals. I was overwhelmed at first with the task. Some of my sources were 15+ pages of data and jargon. I persisted, however. I was able to find enough data to support my arguments, and be able to defend my opinions through the data I found. I think that it made my paper strong and credible. I had the most progress when I discussed my findings with peers. I would talk through what I thought the paper was saying in order to find exactly what I might have been confused on. This was a lengthy process but it worked at the time. I am proud of myself for completing this and I think that the final product is something worth sharing. Here is a link to my literature review. Although it is worth mentioning that these skills have been much improved since then. In my senior capstone course, Biology 488, I have been tasked with a similar idea, being able to break down scientific papers for a general audience. We most recently completed a ‘biology in the news’ assignment where I had to choose a scientific Wall Street Journal article to present to the class. Not only did I need to understand the WSJ article, I had to go back and read the research paper it was based on. This was a unique assignment because I read the general paper first, then the scientific one. I was still able to make the same conclusions and understand the research that had been conducted. I feel more comfortable with interpreting data, and I am confident enough to be able to present my understanding to my fellow classmates. I really enjoyed this assignment too because we were able to choose our own articles. Scientific literature is so important, but being able to communicate it is just as important if not more. Here is a link to my presentation I created.