Teaching Real-Life Writing Skills: A Food Science Blog College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources - $17,500
Nina Murray (Food Science) and Robert Hutkins (Food Science).
The PI's plan to initiate an "issues in food science blog" to complement Food Science 280. The course explores a variety of current issues in food science (such as food bioterrorism), incorporates a variety of writing assignments and attracts majors and non-majors. Students learn to write for scientific "peers" (majors) and lay audiences (non-majors). The required blog will create a "safe" environment for all students to contribute to the discussion of an assigned weekly topic. Speedy exchange of ideas will reward good argument strategies and expose fallacies in students' writing. The blog will be moderated by the instructor, who will read all postings; a trained graduate assistant will comment on students' specific writing and rhetorical skills. Students will earn points based on how they supported their arguments as well as their grammar, structure and clarity of argument. Approximately 60 percent of the course grade will be based on these weekly assignments.
