Inquiry-Based Writing in the Laboratory Course

Writing lab reports in science classes can be more productive and engaging if the experience is structured well. Scientific writing is increasingly recognized as a key component of an undergraduate scientific education. As an integral part of scientific practice, scientific writing is best learned in the context of doing science (1, 2). Because students “do” science (as opposed to “learn about” science) almost exclusively in laboratory courses (3, 4), they need to learn the skills of scientific writing there.