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Biology 312: Writing in Biology

Steven Brewer, Spring 2007

Course Description
Effective written communication is fundamental to science. This course will provide students with an opportunity to write extensively, to critique the writing of others, and to have their own writing critiqued.

Textbook
McMillan, V. E. 2006. Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences (4th ed.) Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston. 269pp. ISBN 0-312-44083-9. Copies are available in the Textbook Annex.

Class Meetings
The course is scheduled for Wednesdays from 2:30-4:25 pm in Morrill Sci. Ctr. (I) rm 319 North. Several weeks, we will be meeting in the BCRC as well. For an overview of the semester's events, consult the Class Schedule.

Prior to coming to class, students should consult the appropriate week’s course Preparation Page, which will review the activities to be completed before class. The preparation pages, posted on Fridays, will provide specific assignments and activities to be completed before class.

Course Structure
Write, write, write! The goal of the course is to give students practice writing. Writing includes weekly unstructured writing (journal writing and perfect paragraphs), individual projects (Methods and Reflective Essay), as well as group projects (Observation, Research Proposal, and Research Project). Each of these is described on the Projects page.

I encourage you to do all of your writing using a text editor and to keep local backup copies of all of your writing, against the event of technical problems. I strongly encourage you to become comfortable using a text editor, rather than a word processor for everyday writing. Please consider write your submissions -- all of the words -- and then transfer them into a wiki to post.

For Macintosh computers, I recommend using TextWrangler. This is currently a free program that requires Mac OS X.  For Windows computers, I recommend using TextPad. This program has a free demo, but eventually requires registration, which is currently $27.

All writing is to be posted in the Wiki. For each project, including the group projects, please also independently format and submit an RTF document that meets the course formatting guidelines.

Assessment
Student performance will be assessed on each of the components of the course plus a score on Class Participation. For each project, a detailed rubric will be provided that explains how the project will be assessed. Grades will be assigned using the table below.

Many of the activities in the class depend on comprehensive preparation before class and enthusiastic participation during class. For that reason, I am reserving 100 points for class participation to encourage you to come to class prepared and participate fully in the class activities.

Academic Honesty

Students are expected to uphold the highest principles of academic honesty as outlined in the UMass Code of Conduct.

Safety
All laboratory procedures will be conducted with strict attention to accepted safety practices. Students will be provided with copies of safety guidelines during the first laboratory exercise.

NOTE:
Any student in this course who has a disability that prevents the fullest expression of their abilities should contact me as soon as possible, so that we can discuss class requirements.

Additional course materials for Biology 312 are available online here.

Updated September 3, 2008

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