2008 Summer Undergraduate Research Training Program

The technical writing program is designed to promote active participation in REU trainee co-authorship on scientific publications arising from the summer research project.

This technical writing program requires that each REU student:

(1) reformulate the research project as a one-page abstract;

(2) construct an annotated bibliography for the REU research project;

(3) read and summarize literature suggesting the REU project hypothesis;

(4) describe approaches, methods, and techniques to test the hypothesis;

(5) analyze and interpret preliminary results;

(6) describe the research project’s relationship to society; and

(7) explain the potential impact of research discoveries.

These sections are revised with mentor guidance into the final technical report. In this way each REU student is guided through an experience of technical writing together with a required slide set for an oral presentation in support of the scientific publication co-authorship goal.