Discusses a variety of writing assignments emphasizing critical-thinking skills for a geology curriculum. The assignments include question and answer assignments, reaction papers, short papers, and position papers. The authors contend that several short writing assignments are better than a single term paper because students improve their writing…

An assignment centered on reading journal articles and writing abstracts is an effective way to improve student reading and writing skills in sedimentology and stratigraphy laboratories. Each student reads two articles and writes informative abstracts from the author's point of view. (PR)