From the start of the semester, I was not really sure what to expect from this class, however, it really exceeded my expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed taking writing and science and combining them into one. Ever since I was a little girl, I loved to write so writing about science, which I also love, was one part of the class I loved the most. This class allowed me to better understand how to read and write an article through the lens of a scientist. 

At the beginning of the semester, we learned about “scientific rhetoric”, and how that is the ability to effectively communicate research findings to an audience. This is something that we really had to process in order to understand it well so that we can do it successfully for our Public Service Campaign Projects. When trying to communicate research findings to an audience, the author must make sure they are being clear and specific. We also went over rhetorical situation and the different rhetorical elements which was a review for me because I learned what it was during my last semester but it was a nice review and I learned how to apply it to scientific articles. We learned about ethos, pathos, logos, audience, purpose, stance, language, genre, medium, and arrangement. 

One aspect of the class that I enjoyed the most is that all our major assignments were connected because they all contributed to the Public Awareness Campaign project. For the first assignment, I had to rhetorically analyze a campaign about fast food and the health effects of it. It was a campaign composed by the Ontario Medical Association, and it was comparing fast food like pizza and sugary drinks like grape juice to cigarettes and implying they should have the same warning labels on tobacco products. I rhetorically analyzed the campaign which proves that the campaign was effective because it was clear and easy for me to comprehend their message. It was a great example of what an effective campaign should look like and what my group should strive for. 

Our next assignment was the Literature Review which had multiple steps to it. My group and I had to work together to come up with a research question that was strong, clear, arguable, and concise. The Literature Review allowed me to use the library databases when looking for articles because I knew those articles were reliable. It is difficult relying on Google to find articles because either it is not coming from a reliable source, or I am unable to have access to the full article. I genuinely enjoyed searching for and reading different articles because I was equipped with the knowledge on how to properly annotate them and analyze them rhetorically to understand it fully. Writing the Literature Review, I grouped all the similarities of the articles together and explained how it answered my research question. 

The final project, Collaborative Public Awareness Campaign, has been in the works since the beginning of the semester since it combined all of our work from the entire semester. I really enjoyed working on this project because my group and I were able to choose the topic therefore it was a topic that we were truly interested in. As a group, we all had different parts we had to focus on, and mine was to create a Twitter account and tweet statistics and other facts about nutrition labels so that we can spread our information to as many people as possible. The social media account was mainly to attract the younger audience since they are the ones that use it the most. We compiled all of our different parts to create a Powerpoint and have the information in one place. Nutrition and health are super fascinating to me therefore I was excited to research and learn for this project so I felt like I put all my effort. 

For all of our assignments, we peer reviewed which was helpful because you got feedback from your group members. The feedback was beneficial since it was a different pair of eyes reading it so they can easily catch the mistakes that you might not have caught. I know when I read something over and over again, I easily skip over my mistakes. Overall, this class made me think, write, and read better as a scientist through the help of my professor and peers. It helped shape my mind and I know all that I learned will be beneficial to me when it comes to my future science classes.