Aquatic Invasive Species

This blog is a project authored by Duke University first year students enrolled in Writing 20 “The Billion Dollar Problem of Aquatic Invasive Species,” which is a writing seminar taught by Dr. Sandra Cooke in the Thompson Writing Program.  Our blog posts are organized by assignment type (short writing = SW; see the category dropdown menu) or can be browsed by topic.  Links to the assignment prompts can be found here:

SW3 (commentary on water hyacinth and biocontrol)

SW4, SW5, SW13 (“research highlights” on primary research articles)

SW6 (commentary on militaristic metaphors and invasive species)

SW11 (press release on a classmate’s research proposal)

As you can see, many of our posts are “research highlights” (like in the journal Nature) that succinctly present the findings and implications of a primary research article that a student is using as part of a larger writing project (e.g., a literature review). Other blog posts are brief commentaries on scholarly articles we’ve read as a class or certain issues in invasive species science that we’ve discussed in class. The purposes of the blog are to:

1. Practice and improve our ability to write clearly, accurately, and succinctly about meaningful issues for a broad audience
2. Facilitate the sharing of information, resources, and ideas with each other
3. Move our writing beyond our 12-student classroom so that our conversation can be extended to a more public venue

To that end, we invite you to comment on our blog posts and let us know what you think! For more details about our course please see the syllabus or e-mail Dr. Cooke.  Also, for some pedagogical tips on using public blogging in an undergraduate writing class, please see our academic blogging handout.

About the blog header:

From left to right:  bighead carp in the Illinois River (by Kevin Irons at INHS); zebra mussels clogging a water pipe (by New York Sea Grant); the exotic water flea Daphnia lumholtzi (by Sandra Cooke); the aquatic weed giant salvinia invading a pond (by Wildlife Pro);