Print PageStudents are typically expected to learn essential teaching skills in lower-level writing intensive courses, but these skills do not always translate among disciplines or may be insufficient to prepare students for future careers. When students reach upper-level science courses, they often lack the required and expected skills to draft high quality reports and papers. To learn these skills, students need opportunities to practice their skills and receive feedback from multiple sources to ultimately develop critical self-editing skills necessary for successful writing. We developed a peer-editing activity in an upper-level limnology course that was composed of undergraduate and graduate students. Students were asked to write a synthetic manuscript on data collected by the class. A peer and one teaching assistant evaluated each manuscript during the class. Before revising and resubmitting their manuscripts, students performed a self-evaluation of their papers and developed a short list of aspects they felt were well-done and others that needed improvement. First drafts and final drafts were graded using the same criteria and students were polled following the activity to determine if student performance improved and to what extent students reflected upon their own writing.
Results/Conclusions
Student performance improved on average 13.2 ± 2.0 points on a 100-point scale with the largest personal improvement of 20 points. Students responded that 95.2% felt the exercise was useful, and 85.7% of students indicated that they would use the procedure for future assignments. Lastly, 42.8% of students responded that the exercise was most productive in assisting students in evaluating their own writing. Overall, the assignment was a success in improving student scores and facilitating the development of student self-editing abilities. We recommend the use of this activity in any science course and offer recommendations from our experience for adaptations in laboratory and discussion based courses.
