Luke Grabowski
Reflecting on: WTNG 310 Advanced Writing (Sciences)
During my Advanced Writing (Sciences) 310 course at Roger Williams University, the primary focus throughout the semester has been “ways to effectively communicate within the scientific community.” Our class discussions in the beginning of the class revolved around how to communicate science for not only other scientists, but also for a public (non-scientific) audience. In class, were labeled the difference of these two types of writing as “scientific writing” and “science writing”. In the beginning of the class I did not realize that there was a difference between the two types of writing, primarily due to the fact that I am studying business and not science and am not accustomed to having to write for extreme differences in audience. However, through analyzing these topics through texts such as Montgomery’s “The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science”, Charles Bazerman's “The Languages of Edison's Light”, Sam Keane’s “Caesar’s Last Breath”, and other related texts I began recognizing (and applying) the different writing styles. The bulk of the workload this year was spent between drafting major and minor writing assignments submitted via blog posts and on individual pages on websites we created through Weebly.com. The first minor assignment I divulged into how the role of rhetoric plays within both scientific writing and science writing. Montgomery’s “The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science” is where I realized how important rhetoric is when writing for any science related text. The three rhetorical appeals (pathos, logos, and ethos) are what can make or break one’s writing when trying to persuade an audience. Through utilizing these techniques in my own writing, I am able to effectively communicate with all audiences regardless if they have a background in science or not. An example of where I applied rhetorical techniques is in my preliminary analysis when analyzing financial communication.
The section of this course where we reflected upon Charles Bazerman's “The Languages of Edison's Light” is where we, as a class, analyzed the topics and importance of genre and discourse knowledge. Here, we studied and defined terms such as genre systems, genre sets, discourse communities, activity system, and more. Out of these terms I narrowed my focus on discourse community and the various genres that play into those discourse communities as that is what I explored throughout my preliminary analysis. Realizing the many different discourse communities and genres in the finance industry was crucial to understand communication methods in the finance industry. My interview with Dr. Melton gave me insight into these communication methods that I can now utilize in my career when I graduate.
Finally, the last major assignment/ topic we focused on during this class was to understand and learn how to write for specific audiences. This differs from what we learned in the beginning of the year by transitioning from “writing to convince an audience”, to “writing to convey information and present it in a better way for an audience to understand”. With this knowledge, our class divided into groups of roughly four to five students and were tasked with helping real world organizations improve their web pages, social media pages, or podcast pages. The group I was partnered with helped Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Foundation improve their Instagram page and their “Knowledge is Power” page to better connect with millennials and increase viewer traffic to both pages. Upon presenting our recommendations to Gloria Gemma, I had a greater understanding and grasp on the concepts of how to submit proposals and present your findings in a real-world scenario with real-world deadlines.
Overall, this course has taught myself how to better reach and connect with an audience that I previously have not been able to before. I now am able to write for audiences in and out of my discourse community/ field of study in a way that is effective and persuasive. Additionally, I now understand what it is like to write reports, draft presentations, and offer recommendations for real-world organizations; therefore, I am better prepared for post college life.
The section of this course where we reflected upon Charles Bazerman's “The Languages of Edison's Light” is where we, as a class, analyzed the topics and importance of genre and discourse knowledge. Here, we studied and defined terms such as genre systems, genre sets, discourse communities, activity system, and more. Out of these terms I narrowed my focus on discourse community and the various genres that play into those discourse communities as that is what I explored throughout my preliminary analysis. Realizing the many different discourse communities and genres in the finance industry was crucial to understand communication methods in the finance industry. My interview with Dr. Melton gave me insight into these communication methods that I can now utilize in my career when I graduate.
Finally, the last major assignment/ topic we focused on during this class was to understand and learn how to write for specific audiences. This differs from what we learned in the beginning of the year by transitioning from “writing to convince an audience”, to “writing to convey information and present it in a better way for an audience to understand”. With this knowledge, our class divided into groups of roughly four to five students and were tasked with helping real world organizations improve their web pages, social media pages, or podcast pages. The group I was partnered with helped Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Foundation improve their Instagram page and their “Knowledge is Power” page to better connect with millennials and increase viewer traffic to both pages. Upon presenting our recommendations to Gloria Gemma, I had a greater understanding and grasp on the concepts of how to submit proposals and present your findings in a real-world scenario with real-world deadlines.
Overall, this course has taught myself how to better reach and connect with an audience that I previously have not been able to before. I now am able to write for audiences in and out of my discourse community/ field of study in a way that is effective and persuasive. Additionally, I now understand what it is like to write reports, draft presentations, and offer recommendations for real-world organizations; therefore, I am better prepared for post college life.