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Write Idea: Editing Paragraphs and Sentences |
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This is the first of a series of entries called Write Idea, an exchange of ideas about teaching writing. This entry is contributed by Barbara Gastel, Associate Professor of Integrative Biosciences/Medical Humanities.
The following exercise for sharpening paragraph-and sentence-level editing skills is used in BIMS 481, Seminar in Writing. Goals of this required course for biomedical science majors include introducing students to types of writing done by biomedical scientists and health professionals and strengthening students' general writing skills.
Near the middle of the semester, the students learn the standard structure of a clinical case report and look at some published case reports. They also receive brush-ups on punctuation and other aspects of the mechanics of writing.
They then receive an exercise consisting of five sentences from a veterinary case history and five sentences from a human case history. Each set of five sentences has been scrambled, and a mechanical error has been introduced into each. The students' task is (1) to put each set of sentences in the proper order and (2) to correct the mechanical error in each sentence. The completed exercise is reviewed in class and is graded.
Although the exercise isn't a writing assignment per se, it reinforces items being taught about writing. It also provides a mid-semester change of pace. After a few regular writing assignments and before a few more, students seem ready for something different. And instructors seem ready too for a week with a different type of grading.
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