Words that speak volumes: students find personal ad exercise enjoyable

Scientists wedded to the laboratory bench around the clock must have resorted on occasion to lonely hearts columns to find a preferable nocturnal pursuit. But young biologists at the University of Derby have been given an early introduction to personal ads by two academics with a GSOH.

Ian Turner, senior lecturer in biology and forensic science, and Ellen Beaumont, lecturer in vertebrate biology, wanted to find an engaging way to teach their second-year biological sciences undergraduates how to write the ¡°abstracts¡± that summarise journal paper findings. So they gave the students a lonely hearts advertisement and asked them to use the information to construct a biography of its author.

In a paper describing the experiment, published in April in the journal Innovative Practice in Higher Education, the academics justify their approach by noting that such ads are ¡°an abstract of a person¡¯s personality and interests¡±, and the way they are constructed ¡°can lead to different interpretations¡±.

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The students were also handed a selection of celebrity profiles and asked to summarise them using only three words ¨C and no proper nouns. Their peers then had to guess who they were referring to.

¡°This exercise illustrates the difficulty of writing abstracts and conveying lots of information in a concise way,¡± says the paper, titled ¡°Lonely heart columns: A novel and entertaining way of teaching students abstract writing skills¡±.

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Dr Turner admitted to Times Higher Education that neither exercise was exactly analogous to scientific writing, but both tested relevant skills in ¡°reading large amounts of information, synthesising it and condensing it into a digestible, abstract format¡±. He said the exercise also boosted students¡¯ creativity ¨C ¡°a much needed (and neglected) skill in the sciences¡±.

The students were also required to carry out a more traditional summarising exercise, he added.

Although the improvement in the students¡¯ abstract writing after the class was no greater than from a standard lesson, 95?per cent of them said they had enjoyed it. For this reason, Dr?Turner said, he intended to continue with the approach.

¡°I really like the Aristotle quote that ¡®educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all¡¯, so fun was really the driver,¡± he said. ¡°It would have been nice to improve performance, but as long as there was no negative impact I am happy. I would like to think there are many secondary positive benefits of this method, including engagement and creative thinking.¡±

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paul.jump@tsleducation.com