  For many students, introductory college science courses are often the only
opportunity in their formal higher education to be exposed to science, shaping
their view of the subject, their scientific literacy, and their attitudes
towards their own ability in STEM. While science writing instruction has been
demonstrated to impact attitudes and outlooks of STEM majors in their
coursework, this instructional strategy has yet to be explored for non-majors.
In this work, we investigate student attitudes towards STEM before and after
taking a writing-intensive introductory astronomy course. We find that students
cite writing about science as beneficial to their learning, deepening their
understanding of science topics and their perspective on science as a field and
finding writing to be a "bridge" between STEM content and their focus on
humanities in their majors. Students also report increased perceptions of their
own ability and confidence in engaging with STEM across multiple metrics,
leaving the course more prepared to be informed, engaged, and science literate
citizens.
