Course Description:

In the last 10 years, the prominence of STEM topics has pushed the Silicon Valley to the forefront of innovation and research. With such development, schools have increasingly focused on sharpening the math and science skills of their students. This technical expertise is important; however, scientific reading and writing are often unexplored areas that pop up again and again in most universities, especially if the school is research-based. Published research papers assigned in most courses can be confusing and littered with big words, not to mention the challenges of writing a 10-paged research paper at the end of the term.

In this course, students interested in STEM industries and research can get a head-start in conquering the unique area of scientific writing. Students will be eased into reading, deconstructing, and asking questions about published works on interesting topics, and will learn to systematically interpret the results and components of an academic paper. Later classes will cover publication conventions, preferred grammar and word choice in the industry, and editing. Students will also get the chance to compose a short research paper on the topic of their choice. In the end, students will gain experience with academic paper writing and continue to seek research opportunities in the future.