Writing Within Majors
All of us here at Case Western Reserve University have experienced the outrageous work load and surplus of writing assignments but how will this writing change once we declare our major? Will the work load become more intense and specialized to what we will be writing about in the future? After talking to senior Preston Baliga, a Biology major, it seems that the writing done in classes like SAGES will be the climax of writing here at Case.
Preston is about to graduate after this semester and has completed all of his courses required for his major. After he graduates, Preston plans on going off to med-school somewhere to work on becoming a doctor. According to Preston, the extent of the writing done in his biology courses has been through lab reports. Every lab report requires a detailed introduction introducing the concepts of the experiment, why the experiment is being performed and what is being done throughout the experiment. Aside from the introduction, the most important piece of writing in a lab report, aside from the recording of accurate data, is the discussion and conclusion section. It is here that the mathematical results recorded in the data and observations section are summarized and interpreted into words. It is from this section that different conclusions are drawn either supporting or refuting the beginning hypothesis.
“The ability to accomplish what you want through writing is directly related to your success. Results are only useful if you can communicate them to the scientific community,” Preston said. Basically what this means is that the ability to put results into words to explain the significance of different outcomes is a valuable tool to have. No employer is going to want to hire someone who doesn’t understand why certain results came out the way that they did.
Though Preston feels that the never ending lab reports have greatly improved his writing ability and will definitely help him in the future with internships and job opportunities, the majority of his writing has been outside of his major. In his biology classes, aside from lab reports the only other writing done is on tests where in other courses he has taken, the amount of writing has greatly surpassed that of his major. Preston noted that his worst writing experience took place in his philosophy course when he had a 15 page turn paper due at the end of the semester.
Throughout the time we all spend at Case we will do enormous amounts of writing that may or may not pertain to our prospective majors, but they all serve their purpose—to further our writing abilities, so when the time comes to write an important piece while applying for an internship, job or graduate school we all have the abilities to do so. Also, in Preston’s case, though he did not engage in most of his writing activity within his major, the writing he did do within his major is the necessary requirements for what he will need for graduate school and internships so it served its purpose as well.
Comments