Research Design and Scientific Writing. 2 Credit Hours

Catalog description

This course provides second-year graduate students the opportunity to develop skills in scientific writing and presenting research results while emphasizing learning-by-doing-and-redoing. Students are required to write every week with the capstone project comprising a grant application defended in class that serves as the basis of the qualifying examination. Classes include lecture, discussion, peer editing as well as critique and revision of student writing by the Course Director and other faculty. Topics covered include the following: 1) fundamentals of writing clearly; 2) principles of revision; 3) effective data presentation; 4) fundamentals of oral presentations; 5) writing and presenting to the appropriate audience; 6) developing hypotheses and specific aims; 7) writing significance and innovation sections; 8) choosing appropriate methods for the experimental approach; 9) nuts and bolts of grants, grantsmanship, and the NIH; and 10) accepting and offering constructive critiques of one's own and others' writing.