Abstract
A humane method (from the perspective of faculty and of students) to improve the writing of students, from freshmen to graduate, is described. This method follows the standard procedure of submission of a paper to a journal, whereby the students (peer) review each other's work, revise their papers in light of the referee's comments (or rebut them). Then acceptance “for publication” by the editor is marked by a high grade. It has been used in a variety of physics-related courses (astronomy, high-fidelity sound, biophysics), and also in general university-wide courses (The Atomic Bomb, The Bhagavad-Gita). The method introduces students to broadly-accepted scholarly communication modes of communicating ideas, with anonymous reviews. With suitable organization the time spent by faculty can be readily reduced, and faculty efficiency improved, to make the method convenient and viable. Also, it seems that other disciplines can use this method to advantage.
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Finegold, L. Writing for Science as Scholarly Communication. Journal of Science Education and Technology 11, 255–260 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016020502851
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016020502851