Required Materials:

Writing papers in the Biological Sciences, Victoria E. McMillan, 6

th
edition
An e-mail account and access to the internet


Course description:

Junior Writing is a university-wide writing program. Bio312 is designed to help students
hone their written communication skills within their major. Students will write for
different audiences, such as other scientists, policy makers, and the general public.

The goals of this course are:
(1) To improve your writing via plenty of feedback and practice.
(2) To learn how to provide effective peer critiques.
(3) To learn how to edit your own work.

A unifying principle for biologists is the scientific way of knowing, so understanding the
process of science is a critical component of this class. By the end of this class, you
should be able to write about your own studies. Understanding how to do science and
refining your critical thinking skills will prepare you for your courses, your careers in
science help you evaluate the work of other scientists, and assess science in the media.

Reading
We will read sections from Writing papers in the Biological Sciences by Victoria E.
McMillian.
Strunk and White, The Elements of Style. The text is online at
http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html

The writing assignments
You will write every week, and will write papers of varying length. You will
generally finish one assignment before beginning the next to allow plenty of time
to perfect each piece of writing.
Biology 312: Writing in Biology
Spring 2013 (Jan 22 April 30)

Instructor Dr. Sevan Suni
Office hours: By appointment
E-mail: sssuni@eco.umass.edu
This is a scientific writing course, so we will cover topics such as the structure of
a scientific paper, a poster, and a review article.
Some assignments will be completed in class and some at home. You will be
unable to make up in-class assignments if you do not come to class.
For some assignments you will participate in extensive peer reviews, in two
forms. For group peer reviews you must bring 4 copies of the paper to hand out.
If you do not bring 4 copies you will not get credit for the assignment. You will
receive credit for participating in the peer review process, and this cannot be
made up if you miss a class. For one-on-one review bring 2 copies of the paper.
After you receive feedback, you will submit a final revision, which should include
a cover letter written to me. This should include (1) a summary of the
corrections and suggestions made by your peers; (2) a summary of how you have
chosen to respond to them; and (3) an identification of at least two additional
substantive improvements to the paper above and beyond what your peers
suggested.
There will be in-class assignments that are unannounced that cannot be made up
if absent.

Plagiarism
All students are expected to adhere scrupulously to the University policy
concerning academic honesty, which is found in the Undergraduate Rights and
Responsibilities at the following web site:

http://www.umass.edu/dean_students/codeofconduct/acadhonesty/

Points possible

Assignment Group Peer Review One-on-one review Final draft(s)
Op-Ed 10 10 50 (49)
Observation Paper 10 10 50
Abstract from article 20
In-class assignments 100
Popular article 10 50
Career Roadmap 10
Personal Statement 10 50
Reflective essay 10
Total possible 400

Names & numbers of classmates:

1. 2. 3.