The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Messiah College uses a two-semester chemical analysis course sequence to fulfill the general education curriculum writing in the major requirement. In both course, students develop chemistry writing skills by completing two formal laboratory reports using ACS journal instructions for authors.  In addition to clearly communicating experimental results, students are required to search and cite the primary and secondary literature to find background material to support and contextualize their work.  The course instructor assumes the role of journal editor and peer reviewer to provide writing interventions in an iterative review and revision process.   A second type of writing assignment involves summarizing and critically analyzing two published articles from the peer-reviewed literature.  In the first semester, students are required to write a method review of a published chemical analysis, which involves evaluating not only how well the paper covers the steps in a chemical analysis, but also the quality of the writing.  In the second semester, students evaluate a paper describing a recent advance in instrument design. Writing assignments are supported by a presentation from a science librarian early in the first semester to provide students with an introduction to library resources including using databases.   These assignments, comprising about fifty pages of reviewed writing, help strengthen scientific writing skills while developing student understanding of analytical techniques. <br/>

Interactive writing in a two-semester chemical analysis course sequence: Journal-formatted laboratory reports and literature reviews

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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