Meet Dr. Mike Roden
Professor of Igneous Petrology
Dr. Roden has been involved with the Writing Intensive Program since the very beginning. For him, the program offers invaluable benefits to his students. By exposing geology majors to geology writing, he finds that his students improve their writing, learn how to express themselves, and gain critical job training.
Dr. Roden finds that his biggest challenge in the classroom is lack of motivation among his students. They “don’t want to write,” he says. But he’s prepared now to face that obstacle. At the beginning of the semester, he tells his students that writing is good for them. He also relies heavily on support from the WIP TAs. “Class size is a problem,” Dr. Roden says. With so many students, the TAs are an essential support system.
Over the course of his tenure with the Writing Intensive Program, Dr. Roden’s approach to writing has evolved. His high stakes assignment about a volcano helps students stay motivated to write and revise. Students work through a drafting process that includes two to three stages, feedback from the WIP TAs, and peer review. In addition to his high-stakes project, Dr. Roden has placed greater emphasis on low-stakes assignments, such as the Phase Diagram Article and Volcano Fact Sheet. According to the syllabus for Geology 4020 – Internal Processes, these assignments let students “practice the scientific writing style.” What’s more, they have promoted deeper and more sustained investment in the writing process – and, as a result, improved student writing.
Since geology has been a part of the Writing Intensive Program for so long, it is now common knowledge among majors that geology and writing go hand in hand, in the classroom, and in the field. Dr. Roden affirms the professional value of writing intensive geology courses. “You have to write as a geologist,” he says. Future geologists need to be able to write research papers and field reports. They need to be “able to describe what they see.” And Dr. Roden sees that they do that and more.