Writing for Chemists: Satisfying the CSU Upper-Division Writing Requirement

Donald R. Paulson
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California State University, Los Angeles, CA 90032
J. Chem. Educ., 2001, 78 (8), p 1047
DOI: 10.1021/ed078p1047
Publication Date (Web): August 1, 2001

Abstract

This paper describes Chemistry 360, Writing for Chemists, which is a junior-level course required of all Chemistry and Biochemistry majors at California State University, Los Angeles. The course covers all of the sections for writing both primary and secondary papers in the chemical sciences as well as the process of literature searching in both computer databases and the printed Chemical Abstracts. The course is team taught by several chemistry faculty members and an English faculty member. The core of the course is a review paper on an individually assigned topic in chemistry or biochemistry. The students are given daily writing assignments that teach them how to write the various sections of the paper. They also learn how to write both Experimental and Results sections, which are not part of a review paper. In addition the course deals with ethics in science, how to give an oral presentation, and how to prepare a poster presentation.

Keywords (Audience):

Upper-Division Undergraduate

Keywords (Domain):

Chemoinformatics

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Collaborative / Cooperative Learning

Keywords (Subject):

Ethics

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  • Received: August 03, 2009

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