May 22, 2020

Dear Jane,

      I decide to write this letter addressed to you with the first purpose of thanking you for your guidance during my journey for this class and second to show you my growth as a science writer.

Words are not enough to express what writing for the sciences has taught me this semester. Before starting this class, I can say that I had only a little knowledge only about writing in the world of science. From the first moment that I participated in this class, I understood the main objectives that I would acquire at the end of this one. Despite setbacks and obviously the chaos we had to deal with in the month of May, I can say with certainty that I have acquired these skills and that I will put them into practice throughout my career.

I still remember the day I first saw the class objectives and thought they were quite a few. Looking back, I can reencounter the things I wrote before this class. Although I took a composition class related to a science topic last semester, I believe that this semester I have managed to acquire in a deeper way the process of what it is to write for the field of the sciences.

      In this class I have not only recognized my writing language but I have also opened up to know more about the different perspectives and languages ​​of my classmates. From the first day you Jane named us the word “collaborate” I remember that I wrote it in capital letters on the first page of my notebook. I think that throughout this class, this word was of vital importance, I managed to discover the importance of collaborating with others in the editing and revision process to understand how others perceive our way of writing and express ourselves how to receive feedback from someone else to change and improve the quality of a written work.

      Before this class I had not fully understood the importance of collaborating in a group and seeing that from the first assignments we had to collaborate, express and listen to the ideas of others, for example when we joined in pairs to read the introduction letter of each One, that day I spoke to Sadman for the first time. I remember being nervous about seeing someone else’s expressions and reaction when reading my written work. However, that day I received comments that helped me think more deeply about the structure and the way I express myself through words, which helped me to analyze more each word I would write from that assignment onwards.

     Besides understanding the importance of collaborating when reviewing and editing my work, I also understood the value of knowing who our audience will be when writing something. Assigning “the power of observations” helped me understand this thoroughly. Because the assignment asked for a specific audience, for the first time I tried as much as possible to not only put myself in the writer’s shoes, but also put myself in the reader’s shoes. Another key thing that I learned from this assignment was not to be afraid when incorporating visuals into a formal written piece, I understood that it is of utmost importance to make a written work striking and clear to understand for the audience I am going to. directing.

       Another skill I got from this class was reading and understanding. I understood the importance of understanding a rhetorical structure, and the maximum approach to what is a tone, a purpose, a genre and a unique posture through each and every one of the readings we do in class and the exercises. The rhetorical analysis that we carried out served me in such a way that I practiced more thoroughly how to learn another’s writing and in the same way apply them to my own writings.

      Returning again to the point of collaboration, I believe and insist that it was extremely important for me to have someone besides you reading my writings. Before writing something, I began to focus more fundamentally on the words I used so that the person who was going to read it understood clearly what I wanted to express.

      As for personally, as mentioned in my introductory letter I am still an undeclared major. However I can say that at the end of this path in this class, I finally achieved what I want to achieve professionally in the future and my career. Now I am more than sure that I want to follow the path of chemistry and I believe that for the path ahead in my university career I will be reviewing and rereading the notes, texts and constructive criticism that I managed to acquire thanks to your class.

     On the other hand, it should be noted that Jane, you have taught me not only the value of collaborating in the area of ​​science, but you also guided me along the path of how important it is to be up to date with current events and everything that is happening in the area of ​​science today. Reading and responding to the many articles in the New York Times, generated greater value in reading news from platforms like these. At the beginning of class, I remember that most of us said that we normally get the news from platforms like social media and television. Now I can say that the fact of analyzing and writing about articles in the New York Times left me that desire to really know what is happening daily in the world through this platform.

       It is also worth mentioning in this letter that at the end of March we faced one of the biggest obstacles that I have faced in my first year of university. The pandemic left me with negative feelings regarding the way of learning. And I also want to mention that despite everything, you managed to successfully adapt this class so that despite the obstacles we continued to improve our writing skills. Although thanks to this pandemic, we did not have the opportunity to make the last assignment which would require collaborating with each other to write something and despite the distance I can say that I have personally grown in terms of how to perceive writing and interpret it. Despite the distance, you still showed how important it is to collaborate. For my role of scientific controversy I had the opportunity to collaborate virtually with one of my colleagues and I think that this was too useful to make corrections to my final work.

      Another thing that I really enjoyed the way to adapt to this problem was the journal entries. Thanks to these assignments, you can understand how relieving it can be to express your feelings on paper. At the end of these journal entries I discovered the importance of writing a story for future generations, I hope that in the distant future, I can refer back to these texts that I wrote in the midst of chaos to tell my children or generations in general. future who want to understand what it felt like to live in the midst of a pandemic.

 As final words, I want to formally thank you for being so understanding and successfully guiding me along the path of science-based writing. I also want to apologize for the myriad of circumstances that unraveled from the pandemic. I think throughout my career I will always be looking back and reflecting on everything I learned in this class.

Sincerely,

Maria Ximena Diaz