9 Final Thoughts

Many students are surprised to find how much reading and writing they do in the sciences. In a 2015 survey conducted of transfer students at the University of Utah, when asked how many were surprised at how much reading was assigned around 7% were very surprised, 16% were fairly surprised, 35% were somewhat surprised, about 33% were not very surprised, with only a 9% not at all surprised (Toth 2015). That means of the 275 students surveyed, more than half of the students were surprised to some level at the amount of reading. For writing the survey results were a bit better with only about 35% of the students expressing some level of surprise at the amount of writing (Toth 2015). But reading and writing does not end with school. As stated in the beginning of this document one of the most important part of being a scientist is sharing one’s research.

As you move forward in pursuing your education and on into your career in the sciences there are some sources that may proves useful. There are several writing centers that keep resources online such as the Global Communication Center at Carnegie Mellon University or the Online Writing Center at Purdue University. At some point as your writing becomes more complex you may need to purchase the style guide for your specific field whether it be the CSE style guide or another one. Of course the best resource will always be your instructor.