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Writing and Low-Temperature Characterization of Oxide Nanostructures

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Writing Assignments in Epidemiology Courses: How Many and How Good?

Ella August¹, Karen Burke¹, Cathy Fleischer²

¹1 Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

Public Health Reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974)

|May 22, 2019

Summary

Most epidemiology courses require writing assignments, but these often lack key elements like clear goals and audience. Improving these assignments is crucial for public health education.

Keywords:

communication critical thinking pedagogy writing writing assignments

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Area of Science:

Public Health Education
Academic Writing Instruction

Background:

Concerns exist regarding the writing proficiency of students in public health programs.
Effective writing is essential for disseminating public health research and policy.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine the proportion of epidemiology courses with writing assignments.
To assess the inclusion of six key characteristics in these assignments.

Main Methods:

Syllabi and assignments were collected from graduate and undergraduate epidemiology courses (2016-2017).
Assignments were evaluated for: purpose description, public health document type, target audience, writing process support, critical thinking/authenticity, and clarity of expectations.

Main Results:

89% of surveyed epidemiology courses included writing assignments.
Few assignments adequately described the purpose (31%), used appropriate document types (44%), identified an audience (16%), or incorporated writing process support (48%).
Assignments scored highly for authentic, critical-thinking topics (median 5/5) and clarity of expectations (median 4/5).

Conclusions:

Writing assignments in public health programs often fall short of best practices in writing instruction.
There is a need to enhance the design of writing assignments to better support student learning and skill development.