Chemistry Technical Writing Course?

[deciding]

I will be teaching a course called Technical Writing for Chemistry at a university to Chemistry students who speak English as a second language. However, I am an English teacher. My question is, does anyone know what topics I should focus on or texts I could use? I'm not sure whether to teach them research paper format, general English, or writing equations. I'm completely lost. And help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Hope.for.the.best]

From the name of the course, it sounds like you are teaching them academic writing in the context of chemistry. If it is the case, then it is definitely a good idea to teach your students research paper format and general English (especially some common grammatical errors made by non-native speakers and the tone of academic writing). University students tend to struggle with doing literature search, paraphrasing ideas and citing references properly, so it is worth teaching them these as well. I doubt you will need to teach them writing chemical equations. They should have known that from high school chemistry!

Do you know anyone who taught or studied that course? You may find out more about the course from them. Alternatively, does your university have some sorts of online learning platform? You could survey your students and see what they want out of the course.

Hope that helps.  

Edited September 15, 2017 by Hope.for.the.best