Letters to Scientists About Their Papers

Abstract

While scientific publications are key to communicating research findings to other scientists, students face barriers reading scientific literature, understanding the literature’s importance, and thinking about the implications of research findings. To help students overcome these barriers, and to further hone their communication skills, we created and provide here a project to have students find a recent scientific paper of interest, carefully read the paper, and then write a letter with relevant questions to one of the authors. This work not only helps engage students with class concepts and increases scientific engagement, but is also important because students realize that scientists are people too, who can (and often do!) write back to interested students to answer their questions. We suggest that this project is a great way for students to form meaningful connections to a scientific topic of interest, regardless of whether they hear back from their scientist, and is a good way for students to further learn about campus resources and develop their writing and communication skills.