John said "data" is not the best word to illustrate my point. I agree.
I knew that when I wrote the e-mail, but it was well past midnight and
I didn't want to take too much time to come up with a better example. I
knew data is a word with which we struggle, so I used it.
I hope that does not launch us onto a tangent about the use of data. My
main point here, which I am sure John understands, is that it is
difficult to explain student errors without simply crossing out the
wrong word(s) and writing the correct word(s). Time is part of the
problem, but their lack of knowledge about parts of speech, etc. is a
bigger problem.
It is not sufficient for me to tell students to write the experimental
methods section using past tense. They need examples of what it means
to write in past tense.
They need explanation when I tell them not to write in second person.
Otherwise I get a stack of lab reports in which the experimental section
goes... First you need to turn on the photo-gate timer, then you need to
turn on the air supply for the air track... My frequent reminders not
to write in second person went right over their heads because they
didn't know what that meant. It also went right over their heads when I
told them not to write the obvious. I have to write on their reports,
"Of course you turned on the timer and of course you turned on the air
supply. Yon don't need to inform the reader that you did this."
Several non-science faculty members have commented that they can tell
which students have completed lab science courses because these students
write better than those who have not completed lab science courses.
That partly makes me happy, but also makes me angry. It takes a lot of
time to grade lab reports. Why aren't other faculty members demanding
writing and why aren't other faculty members grading the grammar as well
as the content?
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu