Teaching scientific writing in biology classes is challenging for both teachers and students. This article offers and reviews several useful 'toolkit' items that instructors of science writing can use to improve college student success. The tools in this kit are both conceptual and practical, and include: (1) Understanding the role of student…

In this article we discuss dilemmas and paradoxes in the use of learning resources and the need to list sources when writing, issues that are relevant for students as well as for teachers and authors of textbooks. We draw on experience from a Norwegian research project investigating students' writing in two subjects: physics and Norwegian in…

Examines comprehension and summary writing skills of fifth-grade Chamorro students in Guam who received instruction in the Guided Reading Procedure with an added summarizing step. Suggests that additional teacher instruction is needed to improve student understanding of the content area material. (NH)

Whereas there has been strong advocacy of the value of writing for learning in science, the role of student planning in this approach and the relationships between planning, writing, and learning have been underresearched. Our mixed method study aimed to address this issue by seeking to identify quantitative differences in learning outcomes…

When teaching writing in content areas, such as hydrobiology, instructors should remember that what works in a writing class does not necessarily work across the curriculum. Yet although differences exist, content area teachers still need writing departments to teach their students to write. One possible response is the generic course, such as…

Discusses ways in which poetry and etymology can be used to capture and/or convey scientific principles. (JK)

A writing instructor at a California University, assigned to teach expository writing in a science course, restructured the course before the third paper assignment to allow students to write, to discover, and explore ideas about science, rather than simply to learn standards of rhetoric or scientific writing. This assignment required students to…

Describes using the writing process as an instructional strategy in science classes to encourage critical thinking. (PR)

A series of interviews carried out over a 6-month period investigated: (1) why and how five New York City high school teachers used writing-to-learn across the curriculum, and, (2) the outcome of conducting research on one's own colleagues. Subjects were a math teacher, a physics teacher, and a career education teacher from a high school for…