Teaching and Applying Chemistry-Specific Writing Skills Using a Simple, Adaptable Exercise

Abstract

We present a writing task designed to increase students' awareness of chemistry-specfic writing practices. This easy-to-use-and-grade task requires students to evaluate 10 short passages, a table, and a figure, representative of excerpts from Introduction, Experimental, Results, and Discussion sections of a journal article. Most of the items contain errors that students typically make when first learning to write for a chemistry audience. The errors target three components of writing: audience and purpose, writing conventions, and grammar and mechanics. Students are asked to correct the errors, when appropriate, to bring the items more in line with conventional writing practices. The task can be used as an in-class activity, a homework assignment, or as a pre–post test in a writing-intensive course.