Life: the Book--A Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your Life: The Book writing? Try to describe this is detail!
I am happy that I was able to write an extremely informative article that could educate an educated audience without boring them to death. But most of all, I am proud of the interviews that I landed with Dr. Cinnamon Bloss and Dr. Nicholas Schork of the Scripps Translational Research Institute.

2. What are some changes or new ideas that you have developed in your writing through the course of this
semester?
I write a lot more concisely and effectively than before by employing writing tips in my article like "make meaning early," "the loop," "write to an ending," "avoid -ing verbs," and "activate your verbs." I have also developed my writing by not making it quite as boring as my previous nonfiction.
3. If you had a little more time to work on your writing for LifE: The Book, what would you do differently? What would you change about your writing?
I was inspired by some revolutionary biotechnological advances that I learned about only after I had completed my article. If I had more time, I might have written an article about the TearPen or Adipose-derived adult stem cells, both of which are pretty cool subjects that I could pursue in the future. In my writing, I would probably try and include all of the neat research stuff that I left out of my final article; they weren't necessary, but they were really interesting.

4. How has the additional element of publication in a book affected the way you approach writing?
I wanted to make sure that my work was totally professional and the best material possible, especially since I didn't want to let down the family and two scientists that I interviewed and included in my article...and since Ben Daley, who is second from the top on the High Tech Totem Pole, is the husband of one of the scientists I extensively interviewed. It also affected my stress level since it was my responsibility that every student's article and art was emailed to the design and layout editors on time, and make sure that all the articles were at least readable, a very challenging task that I hope was completed, even though I couldn't make sure that every article was perfect (even though I wanted to).