Linking Labs, Writing, and Information Literacy to Improve Student Success

Abstract

Our research and technical writing class develops discipline specific communication and critical thinking skills as a flexible hybrid corequisite to first upper division science laboratory courses. It scaffolds ethics, writing mechanics, information literacy, self-promotion and synthesis assignments focused on the science writing genre (lab notebooks, research papers, posters, grants, online, CVs). Students generate and interpret data from graphs, construct explanations, and practice linking empirical claims to evidence. Instructor, peer and writing tutor feedback is provided on drafts to fulfill California State University’s graduate writing assessment requirement. Significant improvement on final research papers following the course interventions was measured.