To prepare our undergraduate students for careers in industry, government, and academic labs, faculty should incorporate more formal writing instruction and opportunities for students to practice writing in a variety of genres used in those areas (i.e., memos, standard operating procedures, articles, patents, etc.). Replacing formulaic “academic lab reports” with writing assignments in these genres is one approach for students to build a range of professionally-relevant scientific writing skills and to help them develop their own scientific identity. A writing-enhanced Organic Chemistry II Laboratory course was developed at New College of Florida and implemented during Spring 2020 and 2022. In this course, students analyzed different genres of scientific writing and considered the audience, benefits, and limitations of each genre. Throughout the course, students received instruction on how to write two-page Memoranda Reports and learned about the purpose and writing styles and conventions for writing a full Journal Article (based on Journal of Organic Chemistry author guidelines). Before most lab sessions, students were given a real-world scenario and a role to play (e.g., junior national lab scientist tasked by a lab manager to recommend a new synthetic protocol). Afterward, students wrote a Memo to the scenario audience and supported their claim/argument/suggestion with their experimental data. Students also performed a multi-step synthesis of hexaphenylbenzene as the experimental basis for their Journal Article. Students submitted first-drafts of each article section and received feedback from the instructor or through peer-review. They then revised all sections and submitted a final article at the end of the semester. In this talk, I will discuss the timeline for writing instruction, detailed rubrics for each assignment, and student outcomes from Spring 2020 and 2022. The intentional inclusion of writing instruction and providing meaningful feedback on our student’s writing is an equitable practice that will have lasting impacts on our students, including the development of transferable communication skills.

Writing-enhanced organic chemistry II lab: Learning to write in professionally-relevant genres

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.