Enhancing Student Academic Writing Skills in Synoptic Meteorology Courses

Effective written communication skills are important for meteorologists. The value of meteorological information (e.g. weather analysis or forecast) is often impacted by meteorologists’ communication skills. In decision making processes, information that decision makers rely on must be both accurate and easily understandable. This presentation documents efforts at California University of Pennsylvania meteorology program to improve academic writing instruction and learning outcomes by combining it with synoptic meteorology instruction. Quantitative and qualitative results of six years of implementation in introductory and advanced synoptic meteorology courses are presented.