The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Using Exemplar Papers to Improve Students’ Ability to Self-Evaluate with a Rubric

Abstract

Research suggests that providing students with a rubric increases scientific writing skills; however, we have found that the quality of scientific writing in a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) is poor even with a detailed rubric. We tested whether requiring students to use a rubric to evaluate high-, intermediate-, and low-quality examples of de-identified student writing improved students’ ability to self-evaluate scientific writing using a rubric. We found that providing students with exemplar papers along with a writing rubric improved the students’ ability to self-evaluate, and ultimately improved the quality of scientific writing in undergraduate students enrolled in a CURE