Undergraduate students in the sciences write lab reports, resumés, cover letters, lab reports, personal essays for grant or scholarship applications, And. More. Lab. Reports.

Working scientists, however, write a far wider, and more interesting, variety of documents, including literature reviews, guidelines for the public, reference documents, emails, TED-style talks, blogs, procedures, peer reviews, explanatory articles for public audiences, and even research report videos.* In this course, students will explore writing and composing forms used in the sciences — forms that are common in science but uncommon at the university. Because the sciences encompass a wide and growing range of disciplines, our approach to writing must allow for growth, change, and recategorization of disciplines and documents, we will begin the semester writing for a scholarly audience, then move on to write for other audiences, examining how audience influences the method and content of what we write. Students will use professional peer review practices to review each other’s drafts and examine how peer review shapes both science and writing.