Geocommunication, a cornerstone graduate course in professional development

Journal of Geoscience Education, Mar 2003 by Lewis, Ronald D, Wolf, Lorraine W

ABSTRACT

We instituted the new course "Geocommunication" as one of four required courses in our recently revised geology M.S. curriculum. The course was specifically designed to address our students' needs, especially in the areas of organizing and writing scientific journal articles, thesis proposals, and research proposals. Our underlying goals were to impress students with the importance of communication skills in the geosciences and to help get their professional careers off to a good start.

The course was centered on two major projects: a manuscript for a professional journal and a research proposal. Using data from a short field exercise, students wrote their journal manuscripts one section at a time (Materials and Methods through Conclusion, then Introduction and Abstract). The research proposal was patterned after a thesis proposal or a proposal for external funds; both versions involved fellow students as "external reviewers." The course ended with oral presentations of these proposals.

Students completing the course indicated that it had been successful in improving their communication skills and that the course should be retained in the curriculum. Most of their suggestions for improvement dealt with the topics covered and the relative amount of time devoted to each. When asked to provide a subjective assessment of student improvement attributable to the course, other departmental faculty reported improved writing performance and presentation skills for the majority (but not all) of students who had enrolled.

Keywords: Education - graduate; education - (by) writing and speaking; geology - teaching and curriculum; education - computer assisted.

INTRODUCTION

A geology major asked a visiting member of our College Advisory Council, "What is the most important skill for a student entering the profession in today's market?" The council member, a successful geologic consultant, did not hesitate in his response: "The ability to write." This opinion has been echoed by letters from our alumni in the business world. Moreover, lack of good communication skills in the geosciences (and other fields of science) has been recognized for decades as a widespread problem of critical importance (e.g., Steinker, 1981; Bazerman, 1988; Gopen and Swan, 1990; Keys, 1999; Takao et al., 2002). In spite of the many technical skills expected of young geoscience professionals today, communication is still ranked as a major concern by employers (Heath, 2000a, 2000b).

Attempts to remedy this problem include (1) requiring undergraduates to take writing courses such as English composition and technical writing, (2) including written and oral presentations in geology courses (the "Writing Across the Curriculum" approach), and (3) devising a course within the home department that is devoted exclusively to communication theory and skills. In our case, student communication skills were addressed during a revision of our graduate curriculum. At this level, the most important problem was determined to be text production: the skills needed to generate illustrations and to deliver oral presentations effectively were typically acquired during the program, but text writing posed a more serious and persistent problem. Many students had difficulty writing clear, concise sentences. An equally pervasive problem was text organization at the section/chapter level. In particular, thesis drafts often included interpretations in the "Results" section and introduced new facts in the "Discussion" section. Such problems resulted in an inordinate number of thesis drafts that had to be revised - a frustration for the student, the thesissupervisor, and the committee member. Even the thesis proposal, a required written and oral presentation, served as a major hurdle and impeded progress on the thesis itself.

After disussing the options, the Auburn geology faculty determined that developing our own course would be the most effective solution. We felt that entering graduate students might perceive English-- Department requirements as not relevant or as remedial. In contrast, if selected topics (even certain grammar and punctuation conventions) were presented by geologists and using geologic vernacul;ar, these topics might be better received. Furthermore, we agreed with David et al. (1995) that a course devoted entirely to writing would be more effective than relying on writing-intensive courses. The new course would give us more time than would be available in individual graduate, subject-matter classes. It would focus on the processes involved in communicating, rather than on the subject matter, and it would assist students with assigned paper and oral presentations in their other courses, with theses requirement, and with professional presentations. The new course was to presented as a course tailor-made for their needs as graduate students and enterings professionals; to underscore these concepts, we named it "Geocommunication." It would be one of the few cources required of all graduate students in our program.