| Mary
Purugganan
Each
year, the Cain Project invites the best writers from the previous
year’s introductory biology course to become BIOS Writing Mentors.
The Cain Project trains about a dozen mentors to work with over 100
students in BIOS 201/202. The mentors meet individually with students
to help them understand assignments, read journal articles in the
biosciences, and write clear, concise, and audience-focused summaries
and reviews.
To prepare new mentors for these roles, Mary Purugganan, a Cain Project
instructor, trains mentors over a three-week period every fall. The
eight hours of training begin with discussions about how to conduct
a mentoring consultation and strategies for advising students with
various needs. The training culminates in a three-hour mock grading
session using student papers.
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“Mentoring has been
a way for me to become more knowledgeable about current research
while helping students improve their reading and understanding
of research articles.”
– Sharon Ho
BIOS and ESCI Writing Mentor |
Sharon Ho
Photo by Mary Purugganan
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Sharon Ho
As a sophomore majoring in psychology, Sharon Ho has been mentoring
for two semesters. She decided to work as a mentor because she had
such a rewarding experience with her own BIOS mentor last year. “As
a freshman,” Sharon says, “I felt lost reading a complex
research article, but my mentor showed me where to look for main
points that helped me better understand the article. I decided to
become a
mentor in hopes of doing the same for other students.”
In the first part of BIOS 201: Introductory Biology, students write
about the molecular basis of a human disease; topics range from Alzheimer’s
and Huntington’s to cholera and leprosy. As the course progresses
to topics in population biology, students critique a paper from an
ecology or evolutionary biology journal, identifying “the good,
the bad, and the ugly” in the article.
This spring, Sharon and four other BIOS mentors have extended their
experience and skills to mentoring earth science students in the introductory
course ESCI 102: Evolution of the Earth. Students in ESCI 102 write
four short papers on topics ranging from the causes of the Indian Ocean
earthquake and tsunami to an analysis of conflicting theories on what
caused the Permian extinction.
Sharon still has two years before she graduates, but she is planning
a career in pediatric medicine. Skills she has developed as a BIOS
Mentor will help her communicate more effectively with a range of
audiences-—patients,
their caregivers, and other physicians and professionals.
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Mentors Are Not
Proofreaders
Grammar and punctuation are not enough. Mentors address issues
of organization, readability, clarity, evidence, argument, and
audience, as shown in these representative feedback comments
that mentors made on a recent biology
assignment.
- “
This ‘aim’ sentence should have been in the
first paragraph in order to provide context for the procedures.”
- “ The purpose [of the study] should
appear here. Although transgenic mice were created, this
was not the end purpose.”
- “ Not necessary for [your]
audience.”
- “ Would be helpful to clarify how
the major components of the study (e.g., SCAN, CTD, capsid,
HIV-1) are interrelated.”
- “ You really presented the conclusions
well, but what were the initial hypotheses?”
- “ Are you certain of this [assertion]?
Was this determined for sure, or was it a hypothesis?”
- “
Try to focus a bit more on the big picture of the experiment—make
sure the overall picture is clear before getting
too deep into experimental procedures.”
- “ What did this procedure
actually show?”
- “ What is the significance of these
results?”
- “ Great job summarizing conclusions.”
- “ What are the long-term implications?”
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