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2 Writing to Learn, Learning to Write: Improving Medical Students’ Writing Competence

3 Presented by: Virginia A. Brown, MA HU College of Medicine C&FM – Program in Health Care Ethics

4 OBJECTIVE To Improve Students’ Professional Writing Abilities Via: Demonstration of Mastery of Relevant Ethical Theory, Utilization of Parenthetical Citation (APA), and Execution of Format and Mechanics Conventions.

5 BACKGROUND History of Ethics Program Fall 1993 Inaugural Class Prerequisite - Clinical Experience Established as Required Course Course Delivery 2 Credit Hours Large Lecture, Small Group Quiz, Midterm, Research Paper w/o WAC Curriculum, and Practicum Fall 2005 Incorporated WAC Curriculum

6 Background, cont’d Multidisciplinary Faculty Faculty Compliment/semester, Health Science, Law, Philosophy, and Divinity Interdisciplinary Health Science Allied Health - Jr/Sr, Graduate Dental - 3 rd year Medicine - 3 rd year Nursing - Jr/Sr, Graduate Pharmacy - 4 th year Average enrollment, 400/year

7 PROCEDURE Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Established for over 30 years Features of WAC Include:  Fostering Critical Thinking,  Utilizing “Learning to Write” and “Writing to Learn” Techniques,  Incorporating Discipline Specific Vocabulary and Conventions (Professionalism in Writing),  Responding and Adapting to Student Needs, and  Linking Writing, Listening, and Speaking (Active Learning).

8 IMPLEMENTATION Development of Getting Ready To Write (GRTW) Activities Identification of “Bad” vs “Good” Papers Selection of Interventions Development of Course Material

9 GRTW Prepare, Pre/Re-write, and Submit Part Word Statement of Problem Annotated Bibliography (APA format) Part 2. Sentence Outline Peer Review Draft Part 3. Final Submission

10 Allied Health N=46 Allied Health N=46 Clinical Health Science Students N=251 Fall 2005 Clinical Health Science Students N=251 Fall 2005 Dental N=71 Dental N=71 Medicine N=57 Medicine N=57 Nursing N=46 Nursing N=46 Pharmacy N=46 Pharmacy N=46 PARTICIPANTS

11 ASSESSMENT End of Semester Survey by Discipline Medical Student Survey Responses 28 multiple choice questions in total 4 WAC specific questions Standard Likert Scale Optional Essay Administered via Blackboard 39 of 57 students responded

12 WAC SURVEY QUESTIONS Q1. The WAC techniques were helpful. Q2. WAC techniques introduced and utilized for this course were useful in preparing to research and write the research paper. Q3. I would recommend the WAC instruction to other students. Q4. The assignments regarding the bibliography and proper citation techniques were well outlined in the Concise Rules.

13 RESPONSES

14 CONCLUSION The combined average of strongly agreed and agreed respondents revealed that, on average, 56% of the medical students found WAC strategies useful. Faculty noted that performance on WAC strategies correlated to final paper grades.

15 NEXT STEPS Develop pre/post assessments of professional writing knowledge Incorporate collection of “grade forecast” correlation Expand survey questions re: Attendance at writing lecture 1 st language as English/ESL Frequency of paper submissions