Effective Writing in the Sciences

*Taught Online*  This course will help undergraduates majoring in the sciences write effectively in major-level coursework and thesis research. The course is in its pilot year; in future years, the course's graduates may be eligible to serve as teaching assistants in it. For this reason, although the course is mostly devoted to scientific writing, it will include a component on how to teach writing, potentially helping undergraduate science students obtain broader impacts opportunities in science communication.

Our reading texts will range from lab reports and posters to advanced scientific work such as research articles, review articles, and grant proposals. We'll analyze how these documents are structured, discuss strategies for reading them efficiently, and discuss what makes them succeed (or not). We'll develop strategies for note- taking, drafting, and revision. Our ultimate purposes: communicating complex information clearly, articulating research questions, justifying the plausibility of methods, and explaining how new research contributes to the advancement of a field. All these writing tasks must ultimately be tailored to meet the needs of the many audiences that working scientists address, including not only researchers in the field but funding agencies, policymakers, and the general public.