BIOL 288 was my first real exposure to writing to general audiences and those not within the discipline. Although I cannot find this paper to share, I want to emphasize how important that assignment was for my overall growth as a biologist and future physician. For that assignment, we had to turn our research paper into a general audience paper. I chose to write on environmental carcinogens and breast cancer. Click here to read my research paper in 288.
At first, I was very lost when trying to write the general audience paper. I chose a difficult topic with lots of jargon that I had to put in terms for everyone to understand. Overtime and through the help of my professor, I learned how to write for a general audience.
Although that assignment was just a written one, it helped me tremendously for my PRISM presentation. During the PRISM poster session, we had to discuss our summer research with individuals with very different academic backgrounds. My dad, for example, works with Dominion Energy. Through is work, he was never exposed to the information I was talking about but I wanted to make sure he understood exactly what I was doing for my research. This project required a deep understanding in neurobiology and heritability, but I knew if I could present the information correctly, everyone could understand.
In the future, these skills will help me as a physician. Many patients are not very knowledgable on medicine and anatomy, so I will have to take diagnoses and treatments and explain them in a way my patients can understand. Especially since I want to work in the oncology department, I will have to be able to explain to my future patients how their chemotherapy is working to help them, why radiation might be a preferred treatment, the possibility of surgeries, etc.
Overall, I am very thankful for the opportunity to learn how to write general audience papers in BIOL 288 and in upper-level biology courses. The skills I have obtained have helped me already in classes at Longwood and with my job as a medical assistant.
Click here to view my PRISM poster. It is located at the bottom of the page.