Ana Acevedo-Barga

4/20/2016
Reflective Essay
Word Count: 1349
Sixteen Weeks
My time in Advanced Writing in the Sciences
I could sit here and talk through each of the 11 writing goals that I
achieved this semester, but that would take more than 1,500 words
and would end up sounding pretty boring (in my opinion). So instead
Im going to highlight four goals best exemplified in my work.
#1. Students write both to learn and to communicate what
they have learned
It kind of goes with out saying, but it is incredibly difficult writing about
subjects you do not understand. Sure you can use filler words to
lengthen your paper but the ultimate product feels empty if the author
doesnt understand what they are talking about. I learned this when I
was working on my literature review. The amount of research in my
first draft was weak. There is one section that I simply typed in a
cluster of questions because I didnt have the answers for what I
wanted to write about yet. In the Areas that Remain a Mystery
section I wrote,
Why is exercise a more effective treatment for women? Why is there
discrepancy in the prescribed amount of exercise needed to a have a
significant change? We could look at neuronal mechanism differences
between men and women when they exercise and focus on altering
these mechanisms in women to see if it treats depression? (AcevedoBarga, 2016).
Its a little bit silly, but writing out what I didnt know lead me to further
research the subject and ultimately strengthened the Future
Directions and Conclusion section in my final draft where I wrote
Depressed individuals both report more sedentary lifestyles and
improvements in depressive symptomology when implementing
exercise into their routine (Ranoyen, Stenseng, Klockner, Wallander,
Jozefiak, 2015). This suggests that some neurological interaction that is
influenced by exercise may also be able to modulate depression.
Further research is necessary to determine these exact neural
mechanisms and how they can be altered as a form of treatment. The
discrepancy in prescribed amount of exercise and its variable
effectiveness based on gender also needs in depth investigation. Given
that there has been little to no risk associated with exercise and
increased depressive symptoms, exercise should be implemented into
the lives of children who are most at risk for developing depression, as

Ana Acevedo-Barga
4/20/2016
Reflective Essay
Word Count: 1349
a potential adjunct therapy and preventative measure (Acevedo-Barga,
2016).
Although conclusive research answering my questions was not found, I
was still able to construct my inquiries and what I had learned more
clearly.
#2. Students negotiate their own writing goals and audience
expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and
situation.
This semesters writing assignments spanned a number of genres and
accordingly required a variety of writing styles. My ability to adapt
writing for different audiences is clearly illustrated when comparing our
first project (the history of my writing experience) and our second
project (the literature review). In the first I wanted to use the
assignment as an opportunity to introduce myself to classmates. My
personality, humor, and attitude were emphasized in this piece and,
while I did maintain quality in my writing, the overall atmosphere of
the work was more colloquial and narrative compared to the literature
review. The difference in writing is apparent simply by comparing the
first paragraphs from each paper. The first assignment begins with an
anecdote where I write,
Like a typical freshman about to commence their college career, I was
eager to demonstrate my intellect as an accepted student of
Northeastern University. My enthusiasm resulted in a 20-credit first
semester crammed with classes essential for my pursuit of a degree in
Behavioral Neuroscience. I had not anticipated the ease with which
excitement could be drained out of my first college biology course.
Within a month my grade was suffering and I was consistently leaving
class dazed and lost by the lecture. By the end of the year I had
dropped my idea of going to medical school and had switched into the
Psychology major, all in order to avoid as many biology courses as
possible (Acevedo-Barga, 2016).
In contrast, my literature review introduction contains 4 peer-review
article references within the first paragraph. There are no anecdotal
stories about my time as a freshman, there isnt even a mention of
myself, just simply stated facts to guide the audience to the core
content of the paper. I write,
Depression is a serious mental disorder that is estimated to annually
affect 5% of people, worldwide (Zhang and Yen, 2015). Low mood, little

Ana Acevedo-Barga
4/20/2016
Reflective Essay
Word Count: 1349
motivation, anhedonia, guilt or low self-esteem, irregular sleep and
eating patterns, exhaustion and poor concentration are all symptoms
of mild to moderately sever depression (Zhang and Yen, 2015). Its
prevalence is anticipated to continue increasing which raises many
concerns regarding how to prevent, modulate, and treat depression. In
recent years there has been a growing amount of research on the
impact of exercise for individuals suffering from this mood disorder
(Ranoyen, Stenseng, Klockner, Wallander, and Jozefiak, 2015).
Literature suggests that depressed individuals tend to live more
sedentary lifestyles, which may contribute to their low energy,
motivation, and mood (Carter, Morres, Repper and Callaghan, 2015;
Helgadttir, Forsell and Ekblom, 2015). Interestingly, exercise can also
be used to prevent and modulate depressive symptoms (Ranoyen,
Stenseng, Klockner, Wallander, and Jozefiak, 2015) (Acevedo-Barga,
2016).
Both introductions are leading the audience towards the main purpose
of my writing. In the first assignment, my anecdote juxtaposes the
positive learning experiences I had in high school and ultimately serves
as a platform for understanding what teaching styles are helpful to me.
In the second assignment, providing a background on depression, its
symptoms, and the potential use of exercise as a modulator, creates a
basic understanding of the material for the audience before building on
with complex concepts in the proceeding paragraphs.
#3/4. Students revise their writing using responses from
others and students reflect on their writing processes and selfassess as writers
The most helpful aspect of advanced writing in the sciences was
receiving feedback from fellow peers, friends, and teachers on rough
drafts of my writing. It is particularly difficult for me to begin papers, so
quite often I am unhappy with the first draft I produce. For example,
when writing the first essay in class I absolutely hated my first draft. I
ended up completely re-writing the paper and was pleased with the
final product. If it hadnt been for the comments I received from
classmates I certainly would have gotten stuck. Thankful peers were
able to verbalize which ideas werent flowing properly and I was able to
reconstruct my essay. Furthermore, once I had created a second draft
that didnt make me want to throw-up I had my friend revise it.
Although at first it was painful to see my paper marked up, I was
ultimately able to use the peer revision to improve my writing and
produce a final paper that I was proud of.

Ana Acevedo-Barga
4/20/2016
Reflective Essay
Word Count: 1349
After submitting the papers, in class reflections were particularly
helpful in self-assessing what I had written and allowed me to reflect
on my writing process, what I had learned, and how I could implement
this knowledge in my next assignment. In the Literature review selfreflection I was able to note what I had struggled with in the project,
but also speak to and advise myself for future writing assignments.
As I said, this class has not been easy for me. Writing is one of my
biggest academic challenges, which can be frustrating when I am not
used to struggling in courses, but this class taught me how to work
with my struggles, use the resources provided by teachers and peers,
evaluate my work critically and make improvements until I am
satisfied. If I had to do it all over again I would like to start the
semester reading the reflective essay of someone who had severe
difficulty with the course but persevered and completed the class.
Musselman encouraged me to take risks in my writings (something I
am uncomfortable even thinking about) but in the end, if you dont do
the work, if you dont try new things, if youre too scared about writing
a bad paper, you dont get anywhere, which is worse than trying and
failing.