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Assessments of undergraduate student writing in the sciences

Undergraduate science educators at the university level have noted the difficulty many beginning students have in generating satisfactory scientific writing. This study was designed to assess undergraduate scientific writing and student attitudes about writing in the sciences. We examined and quantified specific areas of scientific with which students had difficulty as well as the results of opportunities to revise submitted work. Areas of difficulty included failing to clearly illustrate the purpose of the study as well as failing to formulate, discuss and link a stated hypothesis to the results of a study. Statistical methods were applied to determine whether significant improvements had been made in revised papers. We also looked at the pre‐existing attitudes of students towards the practice of writing in the sciences and what effects these attitudes may have on their ability to communicate well in a science writing assignment. The results of this study provide educators with some insight necessary to craft writing assignments that challenge students as well as support their scientific writing efforts. Because scientific writing is the vehicle for the dissemination of new and important discoveries, advancing students’ abilities to generate and comprehend scientific writing will benefit students as they move into their major areas of study.