week

Topic

reading

Title: pages

homework/practice

1.

Organizing the course.  Diagnostic MCAT test.

The nature and origins of scientific writing; main types of scientific literature. 

How to Write & Publish a Scientific Paper: 1-7.

Reading and Writing Biological Literature: 97-116.

Find a scientific paper or a lab report in your area of study--your major (concentracion)--and bring it to the class.

2.

Analyzing samples of scientific English used in biology, chemistry, medicine, and social sciences.

A Short Guide to Writing about Biology: 17-30.

A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry: 14-33.

Writing Science: 86-105, 135-164.

Select and do one Writing Assignment from A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry, p. 33.  Submit it to the Instructor via e-mail: [current instructor's e-mail link]

Explore some Links to relevant online sites and bring a report to class.

3-4.

The character of scientific English: aspects of grammar, vocabulary and style, cohesion, punctuation; avoidance of common errors and jargon.

Writing to Learn Science: 3-32, 179-226.

Scientific English: 1-46, 72-112.

 In preparation to working in groups in the classroom, review the Guidelines to Brown vs. Smith.

5.

Reading before writing: effective reading of scientific texts and taking notes.  General principles of writing a scientific paper (title, organization, quotes and references, abstracts).

A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry: 34-51.

A Short Guide to Writing about Biology: 31-44.

 Chemistry majors: go through the exercises on pp. 50-51 of A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry and put down your answers in a notebook.

Biology majors: comment on the importance of each point in the Summary on. p. 45 of A Short Guide to Writing about Biology.

6-7.

Writing lab reports.  Organization of a scientific paper: the IMRAD pattern. 

1^st Partial Exam.

How to Write & Publish: 15-60.

A Short Guide to Writing about Biology: 46-120.

Writing about Chemistry: 52-70.

Go to the article The science of scientific writing and then to The science of scientific writing-a summary and study them in detail.  Take good notes and jot down your questions in order to be ready for a class discussion.

Go to 1st Partial Exam Practice for information.

8.

Writing research proposals.

A Short Guide to Writing about Biology: 135-144.

A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry: 143-160.

Write a short research proposal that would be relevant to your major area of study.  Remember to ground it well in the work done so far in the field, to show the importance of your proposed research, and to describe well your approach and methodology.  Submit your work to the Instructor via e-mail: [current instructor's e-mail link]

9.

Writing summaries, critiques, reviews, and conference reports.

How to Write & Publish: 15-60

A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry: 90-108.

 Closely analyze the critique on pp. 107-108 of A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry.  Make a comparison to the original article.

10.

Writing résumés and letters of application. Writing a thesis.

How to Write & Publish: 178-181.

A Short Guide to Writing about Biology: 162-176.

 Think about your future thesis/your work in your major discipline.  Prepare a list of questions/problems to share with your classmates and discuss in class.

11.

Submitting the manuscript for publication.  Electronic publishing. 

Starting a review of the course material.

How to Write & Publish: 92-141.

 Go to Practice Self-Tests and do all of them.  Send at least three tests to the Instructor via e-mail: [current instructor's e-mail link]

12.

Giving oral presentations of scientific material.

Continued review.

How to Write & Publish: 182-188.

A Short Guide to Writing about Biology: 155-161.

 While preparing your own presentation it will be informative and entertaining at the same time to visit an Oral Communication site.

13.

Final review and recapitulation. 

2^nd Partial Exam.

Go to 2nd Partial Exam Practice and do the three different variants of your exam.

14-15

Students’ presentations of their final projects

Course Survey: Please take some time and tell us about your experience in the course.   We do appreciate the students giving us their opinions about the course.  It will help improve it and make it even more student-friendly when the course is offered next time.

See the Oral Presentation Guidelines.

Open Peer Reviews of Presentations to see the form you will fill out while watching your classmates' presentations.

Go to the Assessment and Evaluation Component for this course on the College Blackboard platform, select "Course Survey" from the menu on the left and follow the instructions.