Writing in Human Physiology

Mrinalini Manektala

The University of Iowa

Writing in Human Physiology

            When most people think of human physiology, or any science major for that matter, writing is not the first thing that comes to mind. Usually, what comes to mind is a lot of math or science, which is heavily involved, but according to Austin Gessell, he spends quite a lot of his time writing in his profession. I interviewed Gessell, who is a first year graduate student at the University of Iowa, to find out more about the types of writing used in his profession where he is a teaching assistant in freshmen chemistry classes. Chemistry is a huge part of school when taking the path of a human physiology major, so I thought he would know a lot about what writing would be like in the science field since he recently graduated from undergraduate school as a chemistry major. I also analyzed six different articles, three academic and three non-academic, to better understand what affect the different types of writing have on information presented about human physiology.

One type of writing used in human physiology is non-academic. Non-academic writing is something that is used every single day and includes a wide variety of types of writing including taking notes, writing email, submitting magazine articles, and everything in between. What makes non-academic writing different from academic writing is that it is not as formal and usually in a more casual setting, like a magazine article. Though it can include factual information like in academic writing, the structure and formality is on a lower, less intense level. For example, you can see in the following magazine article that the writing used is causal. “The following improvements have been made over the Stolwijk model:

•Increase in number of body segments from six to unlimited.

•Addition of a clothing node to model both heat and moisture capacitance.

•Addition of heat transfer by conduction to surfaces in contact with the body.

•Improved convection and radiation heat transfer coefficients.

•Explicit radiation heat transfer calculation using angle factors.

•Addition of a radiation heat flux model (e.g. sunlight striking the body)”

(Huizenga, Hui, and Arens, 2001). As you can see from this example given from this magazine article, it is a lot more casual since this information is given in bullet points. In academic writing, it would be written in formal sentences. Another thing that makes non-academic writing more casual than academic writing is including pictures, diagrams, and graphs. In all three of my non-academic sources there are either pictures, diagrams, or graphs included and they all have little sub notes describing what the picture is. For example, in one of my articles about the effects on human physiology during space flight, they have inserted a picture in the article when talking about the International Space Station outside in space with a sub note reading “An astronaut is tethered to the Canadarm2 outside the International Space Station during mission STS-114. Image courtesy of NASA” (Williams, Kuipers, Mukai, Thirsk, 2009). Again, the writing is very informal and casual, but is still informative. It can also be a little more creative and include sketches that people have drawn instead of pictures like in the magazine article “Chaos and Fractals in Human Physiology” (Goldberger, Rigney, West, 1990). A lot of the time non-academic writing can be creative, but what I have found is that it is creative in the parts that there are pictures included and it is not creative in the actual writing. “Creative writing in English classes was something I was not the best at, I was always better at writing in science academia, things like journal entries and lab reports”(Gessell, personal communication, 2016). I included this quote from Gessell because it justifies that creative writing in a scientific field is usually not common because academic writing is something that the people who are in this field are much better at. Overall, I would say that non-academic writing in human physiology mostly consists of magazine articles that are informative, yet casual.

Another type of writing that is used in human physiology is academic writing. This is the type of writing most used in human physiology and in the science field. According to Gessell, it is the type of writing he uses most (Gessell, personal communication, 2016). Academic writing usually consists of formal, scholarly essays and textbooks or some kind of educational book. The three academic sources I have analyzed were all some type of academic textbook or book used in human physiology. Academic writing is usually informative and can be just as informative as non-academic writing, but uses more formal language and usually a less personal tone when writing out the information. An example of this type of writing can be seen in a book about mathematical models in human physiology. “For example, when a vein is occluded during surgery, the resistance to the blood flow is increased, and as a result a fall in cardiac output is usually observed” (Ottesen, Olufsen, Larsen, 2004). This was written in a very formal and professional language, and if it had been non-academic most likely the wording would have been simpler and it would have been a shorter explanation. A lot of the time, academic writing is used to be informative and uses factual information to teach people information so definitions are used a lot in academic writing. Whether it be a research paper or journal entry, definitions need to be used so that the readers can easily understand what information is being told without having to ask questions or look something up on the internet. “Defined as an association of species and its environment between which energy and information are regularly cycled, the ecosystem in lower forms of life, and in human populations exhibits significant differences and some striking parallels” (Hawley, 1986).  This example shows a clear definition of the word ecosystems and it also shows how it is used to provide factual information in academic writing when writing about human physiology. Academic writing is not only limited to definitions, iota so includes just general information about the topic and often includes many things that are not common knowledge about the topic. In human physiology, this can include information about the body that people may not know about or it goes into further, specific details about things that people may know some general information about, but not a lot. This can be seen in one of the sources I analyzed for this report in an informational textbook. “Action potentials can be initiated only in portions of the membrane with abundant voltage-gated Na+ channels that can be triggered to open by a depolarizing event” (Sherwood, 2014). This shows that academic writing goes more into depth than non-academic writing. People may know what action potentials are, but maybe were not informed on how they were initiated. This is mostly what academic writing consists of, and is what is most commonly used in human physiology.

From analyzing six different sources, three non-academic and three academic, and from an interview with a graduate student about writing in the scientific field, it is easily seen that academic writing is the type of writing used most in the field. Although non-academic writing can be used every day like in email, academic writing is still what students, professors, and researchers mostly use since the information used needs to be presented in a formal and professional fashion. I have learned a lot about what types of writing are used in human physiology, and I can definitely see a lot of academic writing in my future.

Sources

1.     Goldberger, Ary L., David R. Rigney, and Bruce J. West. Chaos and Fractals in Human Physiology (1990): 43-49. Researchgate.net. Feb. 1990. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.

2.     Hawley, Amos H. "Human Ecology." Google Books. N.p., 1986. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.

3.     Huizenga, Charlie, Zhang Hui, and Edward Arens. "A Model of Human Physiology and Comfort for Assessing Complex Thermal Environments." A Model of Human Physiology and Comfort for Assessing Complex Thermal Environments. ScienceDirect, 23 May 2001. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.

4.     Ottesen, Johnny T., Mette S. Olufsen, and Jesper K. Larsen. "Applied Mathematical Models in Human Physiology." Google Books. SIAM, 200. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.

5.     Sherwood, Lauralee. "Human Physiology: From Cells to Systems." Google Books. N.p., 2014. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.

6.     Williams, David, Andre Kuipers, Chiaki Mukai, and Robert Thirsk. "Acclimation during Space Flight: Effects on Human Physiology." CMAJ. N.p., 9 June 2009. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.