To Whom This May Concern,
It’s been quite a year, and quite a semester to be in school. Although sometimes my mental health would hinder me from attending class, when I was present it felt like escapism from my issues. I notice I started to feel this way with the free writes. But I also knew there was a lot to learn here considering I wasn’t well acquainted with the world of science and the writing that went along with it. The frequent reads of the New Times section provided me with current information I wasn’t aware of and different models of writing.
Writing is something that is always a long process for me. I’ve always been one to overthink what I do and then get anxious that maybe its great to me, but not great to the reader. But this class made me comfortable with drafts and papers. The turning point for me was this article we read called my “Sh***y First Draft” by Anne Lamont. After reading that it was just a push to stop being hard on my writing and especially first drafts that I often spend way too long on. Lamont was all about just putting right on the paper, just whatever needs to be stated needs to be written, and not to worry too much about the format and the minor details.
This wasn’t the only discovery I made, for the field study I realized how hard it is to write for a younger crowd. It was a switch linguistics that wasn’t easy for me it at all. But it was very important lesson, because as college students we are always trying to impress others with our vocabulary and writing when we should always have consideration for our audience. Usually we think about this in regards to the information and write as if the audience isn’t aware of the topic, but this there had to be consideration for vocabulary. It really is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. I outside of this ,the field study did get me out my home something that I’m still not comfortable with doing, but it was good push to enjoy the weather and have a normal day.
As a political science student I wasn’t familiar with the formats of some of these articles such as the Scientific Rhetorical Analysis. The CARS and IMRAD, it’s a format that I’ve never seen my 4 years of college. Therefore it was a format that I grew to like because it is far more concise. But by far my favorite assignment was my final, because I got to interview someone very important to me and got to learn about his work that I wasn’t even aware of. It really pushed me to ask questions I never asked my friend, especially him being someone that doesn’t talk much.
This class didn’t only help me write with more versatility, but it put me out there and made me use my social skills that have been hindered due to this pandemic. So this is a thank you to Writing for the Sciences Fall 2020.
Sincerely,
Yuraika Bloomfield
