Kaitlynn Bayne
e-Portfolio
Writing Artifacts
Click on the pictures to read the pieces...
Bumpa | English 325
This is a personal narrative that I wrote for my English 325 course. The assignment was to write about an important event that happened to us in the past. I wrote about the day I got into the University of Michigan, which also happened to be the day my Grandpa died. It is one of my favorite essays that I have written while attending the University of Michigan.
The dialogue in this piece is very believable, an improvement from many of my past narrative attempts. It also shows my ability to focus on what is important in an essay and glaze over unnecessary details. Although it showcased my many strengths as a writer, it also made clear one of my greatest weaknesses: endings. I know how to write a "cookie-cutter" ending, but it didn't fit with the rest of the story. As a writer, I need to figure out how to conclude my pieces better, rather than sticking to the easy “bring the story full-circle” approach.
Using Stem Cells to Study the Presence of Dystrophin in Patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy| Chem 398
I worked in the Michele Physiology Lab from September 2013-April 2016. I now work in the lab as part of an independent study course for my major. This past Fall, the head of my lab asked me to put this together so I could practice my scientific writing skills. I wrote about the stem cell work I had been doing in the lab and included daily techniques and troubleshooting.
I covered in-detail, everything I did throughout the semester. This included my failed attempts at experiments as well as successful ones. I had a clear and concise background as to why I was doing the experiments I was doing, and I also included what I may do the next semester based on what was accomplished up until then. The organization was well done and it flowed very nicely.
The main area I struggled with was using technical language. I often get confused with very advanced and technical wording myself, so I try to make it easier to follow/understand by describing a technique or a gene we are studying, rather than using the scientific name itself. It could have added a lot to my summary if I were to step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself with the jargon that scientists use, since it was a piece only being read by my advisor, who is an expert in the field. This shows that even though I have become more aware of my audience when I am writing, I still have some work to do.
The Bionic Eye| Scientista Foundation
This is an article I wrote for a blog at the Unviersity of Michigan called the Scientisa Foundation. Because I am interested in both science and writing, I decided to start writing for this website, which is made for women in the STEM field. I wanted some exposure to writing about science and technology, which is why I found the topic of the Bionic Eye so interesting. I got to test my news-telling skills and research abilities while writing about this new technology.
Being concise is important when writing articles for the general public and I was very successful at it in this piece. Also, the language in this article makes it seem like a news-style article, which is what I was going for. It gives all the necessary details of how it works, and discusses the consequences of the new discovery (including its ridiculously high cost).
The information from this piece came from two different websites. Since the two articles are attached at the end of my piece, it is clear to see that I got all of the information from only these two sites. With more effort, I could have given my piece more of a voice of my own. I also could have made it more interesting by adding my personality to it. It was my first ever science writing piece, though, so I am proud of it overall.
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