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Abstract

Research articles are an excellent tool for promoting active learning about the scientific process. One difficulty in teaching research articles is that they address a professional audience and often seek to be persuasive as well as informative. This essay discusses pedagogical strategies that are intended to help students differentiate the purely informative aspects of research articles, such as descriptions of the methods and results, from the persuasive aspects, such as interpretation of results and critical evaluation of the work of other scientists.

Vol. 5, No. 1

March 01, 2006

1-84

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Downloads: 1017

Citations: 26

History

Submitted: 22 August 2005

Accepted: 18 November 2005

Information

Drs. Kathy Gillen, Karen Hicks, and G. P. Gillen as well as an anonymous reviewer read drafts of this manuscript, and the critical comments provided helped to focus this essay. I am deeply indebted to my colleagues in the Biology Department and to the many students whom I have taught at Kenyon College. I gratefully acknowledge the series of workshops on disciplinary writing convened by Dr. Theodore O. Mason, Jr. while serving as John B. McCoy-Banc One Distinguished Teaching Professor at Kenyon College. The idea of using Scholes' Textual Power as a guide to teach biology research papers arose out of my participation in these workshops.

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Criticism and Interpretation: Teaching the Persuasive Aspects of Research Articles

Abstract