Developing Scientific Writing Skills in Upper Level Biochemistry Students through Extensive Practice and Feedback

Abstract

Effective communication is one of the most marketable and transferable skills a graduate can have. Unfortunately, science programs rarely develop effective writing skills due to the time‐consuming nature of evaluating these skills. Here, we try to adapt tools from specifications grading to simplify marking and maximize student success in a third‐year biochemistry lab techniques course. We provided feedback to students on whether or not they were writing to the expected level on short lab reports so that they could implement it in a cumulative lab report. Students struggled to accept the all or none nature of specifications grading and did better with a writing workshop and one‐on‐one feedback. Overall, writing improved the most in sections where students received the most practice. We observed moderate success in improving writing skills in class size of 35, which is larger than most previous exercises of this nature.Support or Funding InformationThank you to Kyle McDade and Ryan Toth for their help in grading.