CBS Writing Curriculum and Goals 

The list of writing abilities and assessment criteria shown below were generated collaboratively by the CBS faculty and other community members as part of the WEC program. They represent discipline-specific writing abilities that faculty agreed all CBS students should posses at graduation.  This list was last revised during the 2022-2023 academic year as part of the WEC Legacy program and is sorted into four major themes.

Abilities: 

• Create cohesive narratives that are structured to flow logically from one point to the next. 

• Formulate research or thesis questions that are appropriate in scope and topic. ● Develop independent, logical conclusions by synthesizing information from disparate sources, including original data and published studies. 

• Select appropriate (i.e., peer-reviewed) sources from the primary and secondary literature; interrogate those sources by evaluating them for logic, consistency, and soundness; and acknowledge those sources appropriately. 

• Recognize the importance of variability in biological systems in the design and interpretation of research and in the synthesis of findings across studies. 

Assessment Criteria: 

• Describes significant gaps in scientific knowledge by articulating a target question or problem and describing its significance. 

• Directly communicates a scientific narrative using an overt logical structure: moves from problem, to procedure, data, conclusions, and back to target problem. 

• Identifies potential problems with study and alternatives to interpretation or approach. 

• Draws logical conclusions from synthesis of evidence. 

New Suggestion: 

• Describes significant biological mechanisms that underlie the research hypotheses tested.

Abilities: 

• Interpret, construct, integrate, and properly caption and format figures and tables. 

• Recognize the importance of variability in biological systems in the design and interpretation of research and in the synthesis of findings across studies. 

• Describe biological observations and procedures concretely including quantitative analyses. 

Assessment Criteria: 

• Makes appropriate choices about which data to represent visually, and orients readers to figure and table contents with informative legends. 

• Uses appropriate statistics and describes them according to conventions in the literature. 

• Describes procedures in a way that can be replicated. 

New Suggestion: 

• Effectively communicates unsuccessful or "negative" data, conveying that failure of a hypothesis is as important as success

Abilities: 

• Write concisely, avoiding unnecessary language or information. 

• Write with biological accuracy (i.e., precisely, using proper terminology, and without teleology or anthropomorphisms). 

• Write credibly and persuasively to a variety of assigned audiences, using terminology that is appropriate for the intended audience. 

Assessment Criteria: 

• Presents information in a concise manner. 

• Utilizes scientific template (abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion) or another appropriate format.

Abilities: 

• Use writing to develop and deepen thinking. 

• Work and write collaboratively (e.g., provide constructive peer review). 

• Effectively revise and/or self-edit written work. 

New Suggestions: 

• Use a citation manager to organize and keep relevant literature 

• Recognize personal biases when trying to achieve "objectivity" desired by courses 

• Manage time effectively such that writing is paced and deadlines are met and/or that alternative arrangements are requested. 

• Realize that access to knowledge can be limited by the language that is used.