Final Blog: Transformative Learning

A summary of my major takeaways from Writing 60

Transformative Moment 1: Research articles are not hard to read when you read them with purpose. After scouring numerous research articles for this class, reading them has become far less daunting and far more enjoyable. I enjoy reading them when I have outlined guiding questions. Moreover, when I was making my advocacy project, reading research articles was easier because I knew what I was looking for in each article, rather than reading them and getting lost. When I have a purpose to reading research articles, they become like specifically shaped puzzle pieces that are designed to fit into a specific spot, except I’m the one who makes the puzzle and determines where they go. They’re also a lot more straightforward to read, although I usually have to familiarize myself with the technical details.

Transformative Moment 2: Every piece of writing should be done so using a framework. My writing process is a convoluted combination of organization and utter chaos. When I write without direction, my work comes together in a sloppy fashion. Conversely, when I create a plan for my writing, everything comes out smoother.

Problem Area 1: I rely too much on the words of others when I write and not enough on my ability to synthesize their words into my works. My first science communication article about crows (I wrote 2) was, by my standards now, a failure. I did an unsatisfactory job of using quoted info from my sources to synthesize an easy-to-read article, and the end result was a boring read that wouldn’t excite readers like a narrative article is supposed to. However, in my second article I used everything I had learned from my previous failures to 

Problem Area 2: I could have done a better job making Twitter posts that were easier to read and designed for a wider audience. Most of my posts were appealing to people who already cared about birds, and not as available to people who didn’t. I didn't use broad hashtags to expand the reach of my posts, and my posts weren't straightforward or well-designed.