Describes how the geology department of Bucknell University integrated its Senior Program with Bucknell's writing program. The program stresses the importance of the following: (1) teaching appropriate writing skills and style; (2) providing clearly articulated writing assignments; (3) writing multiple drafts; (4) using the peer-review method; and…

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…

Describes a term paper assignment where students are allowed to pick a topic that interests them based upon the course focus and course format. Authors have found that, if students are interested in a topic and it is relevant to them, some of the onerousness that students associate with writing can be significantly reduced. (PR)

Describes two writing assignments for students in a large physical geology class. For the first assignment, students write two descriptions of the same rock. One is written for students and the instructor the other for people with no background in geology. For the second assignment they write one of four topics. (Author/PR)

Describes the learning log as a personal journal divided into five sections. The "Noting" section functions as a typical notebook. The "Creating" section is for students to express themselves. Students use the "Telling" section to answer examination questions and write other assignments. In the "Listening"…

Describes writing environmental impact statement concerning land use as assignment in geology courses. Students select area, propose land-use project, analyze available literature, choose specific site within map area for project, and write report addressing site access, water supply, liquid and solid waste disposal, mitigation of environmental…

This paper reviews attempts to introduce writing skills to undergraduate geoscience students, reports on the status of technical writing in geoscience curriculum, and describes a fully integrated approach to writing across the geosciences curriculum, based on a required sophomore-level technical writing course. The technical writing course leads…

Based on their experiences the authors contend that increased emphasis on communication skills in the geologic curriculum results in the graduation of better geologists. The authors describe writing assignments, including first-year one-page papers, upper-level assignments, memos, oral presentations, projects, field notebooks, and senior thesis.…

Authors describe a "writing intensive" physical geology course utilizing both formal and informal writing assignments. The formal assignment consists of a summary paper on four geological articles. A writing tutor provides feedback on drafts of the summaries. The informal writing assignment requires students to keep a journal related to laboratory…

Author describes her first-year seminar in history of geology where students are given writing assignments asking them to summarize, describe, explain, be convincing to reader. Students review their written work through frequent revision, peer review, collaborative writing assignments. Assignments require students to examine scientific principles…

Describes advantages and details of use of journal writing in introductory geology course. Entries include minimum of three one-page entries per week and count for 25 percent of course grade. Most students start with restatement of ideas presented in class; by end of the course, they are drawing original conclusions and applying ideas in new…

Describes an assignment in a paleontology course built around constructional morphology and the role of adaptation and exaptation in evolution. Students investigate the constructional morphology of a group of fossils that interests them. Findings are presented in an oral presentation and in a term paper. (27 references) (PR)

Describes an assignment in a graduate-level course in sedimentary-basin analysis that requires students to write a research-grant proposal. The assignment forces students to develop a topic suitable for original research. Each year 25 percent of the class turns these assignments into master's thesis projects and/or submits them as student grant…

Describes an approach to introductory geology that requires students to go into the field to make observations, collect and analyze data, synthesize those data, and hypothesize about inferred geologic relationships. The product of these laboratories is a paper that requires students to test their hypothesis using specific examples from the data.…

Author describes an individual research project involving digital modeling of graded river profiles as part of a sophomore-level geomorphology class. The three-week project gives students the opportunity to choose research topics, design experiments to test ideas, interpret results, and write a research report. (PR)