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Sample Proposal: Writing

Jackson School of Geosciences

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GEO 338T Marine Tectonics

Department of Geological Sciences

What substantial writing projects will your students complete during the course?

Marine Tectonics is an upper level undergraduate course taught in conjunction with an early graduate course (GEO 381T). We cover a complete range of topics related to plate tectonic boundaries and use of marine geology and geophysical data to understand these earth processes. We have noted over the 8 years of teaching this course that we need to provide increased guidance for writing in order to have the students do an improved job in their final project. Thus for the 2015 version of this course we have added in a series of writing assignments to start the process of the students learning academic/professional writing. For each assignment we both conduct a peer review with the students having a chance to revise before submitting to the instructors, and we provide detailed comments on these smaller assignments to the students to educate them in advance of the final project.

What kinds of feedback will students receive from the instructor, and what opportunities will they have to read and comment on each other’s work? How often and how extensively will they revise their own writing?

For the final project we have broken the task for writing a formal research paper into “bite sized” pieces. The students first write a short description of their research topic including at least three key references. This undergoes peer review and instructor review. Then the students write an expanded outline of their paper with instructions in the proper writing of an outline. This also goes through peer review and instructor review. Lastly the students write a draft of their introduction that similar goes through both reviews. The students get additional feedback from class and instructors during their oral presentations where comments on content come early enough that the students can then incorporate those suggestions into their final written paper.

What amount of the final course grade will come from the written work (minimum one-third for a three-hour course)?

Our total writing percentage is 35% not including the short answer questions that accompany some of the problem sets. Overall this course will really benefit our geoscience majors as well as other who take this course from other colleges by carrying both the Independence Inquiry and Writing flags. It would be the second upper level undergraduate course in the Jackson School to carry the writing flag at this stage and so is needed for our curriculum. Our grading and assignments for the course are as follows: In-class Exercises (5), Problem Sets (6), Writing Exercises (5), A final project that will consist of both an oral presentation and a written report. Graduate students will prepare a report presenting original analysis of data (e.g., seismicity, potential fields, GPS, bathymetry) along a plate margin of their choice. The data are likely to derive from publications; however, analysis and synthesis of data should represent the student’s work. Undergraduates will synthesize three or more journal articles about a plate margin of the student’s choice, based on multiple techniques to understand the tectonics of the area. The written report should be 3-5 pages of text and include figures from and references to the journal articles. Part of the assignment is a required meeting with one of the instructors by week 12 to discuss your plans for the final project assignment. Grading: In-Class Exercises 10%; Writing exercises 10%; Problems sets 40%; Final Project is 40% (15% oral, 25% written). There are no in-class exams or final exam. There are no dropped grades. Email all instructors if you will be missing a class to make arrangements for make-up assignments.