Determining the Most Effective Class Activities for Learning Scientific Writing.

Scientific writing is a valuable skill for science students, since many of them will write about their research in theses, dissertations or journal articles. However, many students have not been trained in scientific writing, and the task seems insurmountable to some, who can develop a “fear of writing” that prevents them from finishing their program or manuscript. To effectively teach scientific writing, the instructor should devote the most effort to the most effective learning activities.  In my “Scientific Writing and Communication” class, I collected data to addresses three research questions: 1) Did student writing skill and knowledge improve during the course, 2) What was the most effective activity for student learning in this course, and 3) Did student confidence in scientific writing increase after this course. First-day and last-day quizzes and surveys were used to collect data about student knowledge and opinions of class activity effectiveness, and student confidence levels for scientific writing tasks. Common error rates in first drafts and final papers were used to determine changes in writing skill. This data indicated a strong improvement in scientific writing skill, knowledge and confidence. The two most effective learning activities were the writing process itself, and the revising process using instructor and peer feedback. These results suggest that adding scientific writing courses to the undergraduate and graduate curricula could improve student writing skills and confidence, which could improve retention and graduation rates.