Research & Writing Experiences

I am a biology student at George Mason University and my interest is in infectious diseases and emerging human pathogens. Although I'm fairly new to research and writing, I am looking forward to learning how to become a better writer and researcher. I've only written a few papers for my biology classes here at George Mason University. As you know, many of the undergrad biology classes do not require much writing, just a lot of lab work - but I know there are a lot of research papers on particular species or diseases out there that are useful and helpful to the community of students interested in science, medical students, doctors and researchers. I am eager to learn how to become one of those writers that could help others better understand how a certain bacteria or virus mutates and how their virulence factors can effect their specific hosts... or something around that nature.

For one of my research papers I had to write a paper for a class on a species of freshwater gastropods and how living conditions such as one with a predator, like a crayfish, could affect their shell growth and how fast the shells grew in a certain amount of time. The snails were kept in a tank filled with water for weeks with or without a crayfish and the students were to measure their shell lengths and widths, along with their operculums (coverings of their shells) to determine if the shells had any growth changes when a predator such as a crayfish was present or not. The research paper was not as simple as it may have sound. The research paper took a few weeks to a month to complete because the experiment itself took time to finalize and we had to gather as much data & measurements as possible to prove whether the hypothesis, ‘If Predation Affects Shell Growth’ was true or not. The research paper required comparisons from other scientists’ data and different types of methods used, such as water conditions and numbers of predations. These results and data from other researchers were from scientific articles that were obtained from online resources and school databases to use to compare information. The final product of the research paper was well-written but minor changes and improvements could have been essential.

By taking English 305, advanced composition, I expect to gain more knowledge of critical writing, especially writing formal papers that would be beneficial to me in my future workplace. I expect to learn how to use needed information and analyze research papers from other scientists to write about arguments against their research to support my ideas in my own research papers. I would also like to improve my vocabulary and to be able to use more formal diction and tone.

Although my experience with research and writing is limited because I have not written or worked on many researches in my field of study, which is biology, I plan to expand my knowledge from what I have learned up until present. However, my interest is in researching infectious diseases so I would assume a lot of other scientists' research papers would be used to write my own research. I plan on expanding my knowledge in researching, how to find the right information to use when writing a research paper. Also, by using other scientific papers to compare writing styles and scientific methods used to develop an idea of what is necessary in a well-written paper that will benefit me. The tools that were provided to me to help with writing in past essays were basic tools and were not used for advanced and technical writing. I plan to use what I learn in this class to help me achieve better writing skills to take with me as I advance in my field of study or in my future career. My goal is to be an improved writer with the knowledge of what I’ve learned to be successful in writing my own research papers and to learn how to analyze other writers’ research papers and to make arguments against their ideas if necessary.