Lonely heart columns: A novel and entertaining way of teaching students abstract writing skills

Journal article


Turner, Ian J. and Beaumont, Ellen S. 2013. Lonely heart columns: A novel and entertaining way of teaching students abstract writing skills. Innovative Practice in Higher Education.
AuthorsTurner, Ian J. and Beaumont, Ellen S.
Abstract

Abstract writing is a key skill for science graduates; they are a common feature in many of the standard forms of scientific dissemination such as scientific research articles. In this paper we present a novel and entertaining approach for teaching abstract writing using adverts from lonely heart columns (LHC). Student constructed full profiles of the authors of LHC and constructed LHC profiles of celebrities to illustrate the key sills in abstract construction. There was no significant difference between the grades achieved by student taught using LHC and a more traditional approach, suggesting there were no negative impacts from this delivery method. Student in LHC tutorial overwhelmingly enjoy the tutorial, 95% responded the question ‘how would you rate the enjoyment of this tutorial’ as ‘much’ or ‘very much’. In addition to abstract writing two thirds of students in LHC tutorial believed they improved their ability to speak in front of others and their creative thinking skills. The LHC tutorial is a novel approach to teaching and learning that is both enjoyable and effective.

KeywordsTransferable skills; Teaching and learning; Writing skills; Student experience
Year2013
JournalInnovative Practice in Higher Education
PublisherStaffordshire University
ISSN2044-3315
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10545/621101
hdl:10545/621101
Publication datesApr 2013
Publication process dates
Deposited02 Dec 2016, 11:57
ContributorsUniversity of Derby
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