Over the course of this semester spent in writing for the sciences class, it has allowed me to explore and refine numerous strategies to enhance my scientific writing. To begin with, recognizing mine and other linguistic differences and utilizing those resources in my writing. Throughout the duration of this class, I have come across several types of scientific literature where I was met with a more complex form of linguistic, this being a different type of writing syntax and diction with the use of jargon. This was first apparent when working on my scientific profile, the way scientific papers are structured with data and procedures along with the jargon made it a little overwhelming to get across from. However, as I got more practice with these forms of literature I learned how to go about reading them, skipping procedures first and going back to all the sections to piece the information together. As well, getting accustomed to some of the jargon, this mainly being about the topics of depression and psychology, a recurrent theme in all my work except the introductory letter. Getting a grasp of some of the jargon with things like somatic and erogenous symptoms, I was able to apply it simplistically and concisely in my work, like in the science profile paper where I talked about professor Brett Silverstein line of work in depressed patients. 

As for participating in collaborative and social aspects of the writing process, the time where I found this to be most helpful was during my final paper. In the peer review workshop, my classmates and I had the opportunity to look over one another work and provide feedback. There they told me that the overlying issue is my vague stance and argument in my writing, a few days later I took part in a presentation on the overall arch of my paper. Explaining my argument, again, the class found it unclear and couldn’t pinpoint exactly which direction I was heading with the somatic symptom in depression topic. The great amount of response helped me fix this issue and I was able to re-evaluate my work in the final research paper to provide a clear and definitive stance. This resulted in the positive advantages of putting more emphasis and evaluating somatic symptoms in a clinical setting for major depressive disorder (MDD) individuals. With regards to the skill of formulating and articulating a stance in your writing, this relates back to the final research paper scenario, the only time in this class I had a problem declaring a clear stance. I was going to continue with my original argument until being told by my peers that it wasn’t concise, in response to their great input I was finally able to see my error and created an argument that would flow better with the whole, how the detection and analyses of somatic symptom in a clinical setting can be rewarding for people with major depressive disorder. 

A useful strategy that was heavily emphasized in this course was the use of resources such as the college’s database to locate sources. Starting from the scientific profile where I had to search for scientific articles by one scientist, leading up to more rigorous challenges of finding sources for a research paper. It was crucial learning search tactics to narrow down the possible article choices and being able to identify which source was the most effective for my case. This is something I have practiced multiple times doing these assignments, practice that helped me refine and improve a skill I possessed. That also applies to the strengthening of my source use, whether it be through integration, quoting, paraphrasing, or citing. An ability that was versatile throughout almost all assignments, after understanding the material I went over when applying it to my own work I had pay attention that I was giving proper credit to the information I was extracting it from. All in all, the strategies that I have taken away from this class has enhanced my ability as a writer and reader, especially when it comes to scientific literature, learning how to comprehend the passages and then properly applying it to my own scientific work.