Prior to Longwood, my only exposure to scientific writing consisted of biology textbooks and some articles I found online. I never realized how different the writing styles were for various forms of writing, including general audience papers, lab reports, and research papers.
Because of the LIFE STEM program, I was able to take Entering Research I during my first semester at Longwood. Through this class, I was able to learn more about reading and interpreting scientific journal articles. As part of this class, we were required to write our own research article in parts to understand what should and should not go in each section and how to write them. The most difficult part for me was writing the introduction which had to be four pages long.
I struggled a lot during this class with knowing what to include in an introduction since I had never been exposed to this form of writing before. For this assignment, I wrote on microplastics in the Chesapeake Bay since it was my topic for my research group. One of the major skills I was able to develop during this class was learning and understanding how to write papers suitable for scientific literature. I learned how a proper research article should flow and developed the ability to make my writing more concise (a skill that took the entire semester to learn). In the introduction artifact below, you will see my first ever attempt at writing a research paper. Following that artifact, you will see my research paper that I wrote during the PRISM program, an 8-week long summer research project looking at epigenetically heritable traits in maternal rats. One of the main things that sticks out to me when reading both papers is the amount of growth I encountered at Longwood University between these two papers. During that time, I took many upper-level biology courses including BIOL 404, BIOL 342, and BIOL 305. Each of these classes required me to either read or write scientific literature.
Another class I took during that period was BIOL 301 where we were tasked with writing general audience papers. Although this seemed like an easy task at the time, it was actually pretty difficult for me to write this paper without using loads of jargon and trying to write it in a way that would make sense to most individuals. This class helped me prepare for my poster session during PRISM. During this session, we had to speak to many individuals with different academic backgrounds. There were many parents there also who had never heard of many of the techniques we used in the lab. Through that session, I had to know my material well-enough to explain it to other scientists and parents! This required lots of thorough practice and I used the knowledge I learned in my biology classes at Longwood to help with my presentation.
I used to not understand why it mattered whether or not I could explain my research in general terms or how to explain it to individuals with different academic backgrounds, but I now know why this is so important. In my BIOL 488 class, we are turning our proposals into elevator speeches to make sure we have that skill. I am looking back on notes from old lectures to understand how to compose this speech and how to avoid going into too much scientific detail. These speeches are designed to make sure anyone can understand the research being done and its broader implications on society. In addition, these skills will help me in the future as a physician. Many of my patients will not be able to understand all of the science behind their medical problems, and I will need to be able to explain it to them in a way that makes sense and they can fully understand. Overall, I feel that all of the biology courses I have taken at Longwood have prepared me for all forms of scientific writing.
Click here to view my Entering Research I introduction.
Click here to view my PRISM paper.
Click here to view my BIOL 301 general audience paper.