• Proposal
• Syllabus

REPORT ON PROPOSED W COURSE: BIOL 491

We recommend that BIOL 491, Undergraduate Research with Writing Credit, be certified as a writing-intensive (W) course for the next four academic years (1/08 to 1/12). We have reviewed a representative syllabus and have determined that the course meets or exceeds the following criteria:

1. Percentage of final grade based on writing quality: 100%
2. Course content appropriate to the major
3. Total number of words: 4000+
4. Instructor to student ratio for one section: 1:7

Students will write a research report in a format similar to that seen in the primary research literature. Prior to writing, the student and research instructor will discuss the format of the research report and the elements of effective science writing. Discussions will also cover the preparation of outlines and effective paragraph construction. Students will then write a draft version of their paper that will be turned in to their research instructor by the end of the 10th week of the semester. Students will discuss their draft version with the instructor to receive feedback on the style, grammar and organization of the paper. Students will then revise their papers accordingly and submit a second draft by the end of the 12th week of the semester. The process will be repeated, and the third version of the report that is submitted will be the final graded version. The undergraduate advising office will have a list of all students registered for BIOL 491s and will schedule workshops through the writing center such as: “Citing and Using Sources, Summarizing, Abstracts, and Avoiding Plagiarism.” Power Points and exercises for these topics developed for the introductory microbiology laboratories will also be available through the Biology department website for further instruction. Students will have to attend 3 workshops to obtain writing credit.