Want to improve undergraduate thesis writing? Engage students and their faculty readers in scientific peer review.

ABSTRACT: One of the best opportunities that undergraduates have to learn to write like a scientist is to write a thesis after participating in faculty-mentored undergraduate research. But developing writing skills doesn't happen automatically, and there are significant challenges associated with offering writing courses and with individualized mentoring. We present a hybrid model in which students have the structural support of a course plus the personalized benefits of working one-on-one with faculty. To optimize these one-on-one interactions, the course uses BioTAP, the Biology Thesis Assessment Protocol, to structure engagement in scientific peer review. By assessing theses written by students who took this course and comparable students who did not, we found that our approach not only improved

SUBMITTER: Reynolds JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3105927 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature