Feedback to non-majors BIOS 101 (~200 students)

Every Friday, in BIOS 101 (approx. 200 students, mostly freshmen), we do an extemporaneous writing. After those pages are recorded, they have a week to re-do them and generate a page of self-assessment. On October 3, 2008, the prompt was: Based on your knowledge and experience in biology so far, answer the question: Do any of the current candidates for president or vice president understand the importance of scientific research? Answer the question “yes” and defend your answer, then answer the question “no” and defend that answer. After reading their self-assessments, I sent them some feedback (the link); it's been edited slightly.