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The Stanford Study of Writing is one of only a handful of longitudinal studies on college student writing. A report on the first two years of the study was published in the December 2005 issue of College Composition and Communication . Two of the student participants in the study,
Beth McGregor and Mark Otuteye, served as co-authors of the article along with Fishman and Lunsford.
If you are interested in learning more about the study, please visit http://ssw.stanford.edu.
The office of the Campus Writing
Coordinator is conducting an ongoing, interview-based study
Jenn Fishman shares examples of a student activistʼs writing.
with UCI Juniors that will help the
UCI community understand how its students develop as writers.
The study has already yielded useful findings regarding studentsʼ writing processes and their memories of writing instruction.
To view the preliminary results of the first phase of this study, please visit http://www.writing.uci.edu/ retrowriting.pdf
.
The CWC office offers consultations to faculty to answer questions, gather information, and advise on any issue related to the teaching of writing.
The CWC Web page www.writing.uci.edu
offers a wealth of information of topics ranging from designing effective writing assignments to evaluating student writing.
Contact Campus Writing
Coordinator Susan Jarratt
( sjarratt@uci.edu
, x49533) or
Graduate Writing Consultant
Alexandra Sartor ( asartor@uci.edu
x49531) for more information.
This quarter researchers from the office of the Campus Writing
Coordinator will begin the second phase of a study on undergraduate writers. The first phase of this research project, “ Retrospective
Writing Histories ,” began in 2004 with the goal of collecting detailed, interview-based accounts of student writing experiences. This project involved interviews with thirty-five
UCI juniors from every school on campus and helped provide insight into studentsʼ writing processes, their use of available campus support for writing, and their recollections of what they learned in their lower- and upper- division writing courses.
Researchers were encouraged to learn that many students were able to speak eloquently about their own writing processes. The majority reported engaging in the pre-writing, drafting, and rewriting techniques they learned in their lower-division writing courses.
Additionally, students expressed the most satisfaction with writing that encouraged independent, critical thought as opposed to writing that followed strict prescriptions from instructors.
One of the most significant aspects of the study in terms of curricular assessment is the issue
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The following article first appeared in The New University on
January 30, 2006.
The university residence hall has long been a place where students perfect the art of late-night gab sessions and hone their skills as connoisseurs of pizza. Now, thanks to the Writing and Library Research
Peer Tutoring Program, the residence hall is also a site where students can develop their abilities as writers. Under the umbrella of Student Housingʼs First Year
Initiative (FYI), five students who trained fall quarter for 22 hours will provide evening tutoring in writing and library research. Tutoring is available Mondays through
Thursdays, 7-9 p.m., in Mesa
Courtʼs Activity Center Classroom and Middle Earthʼs Gondolin
Multi-purpose Room.
Funded by a grant from the office of the Campus Writing Coordinator, the program is likely to continue in
Spring and Summer.
Writing instructors and students recognize the value of peer review and it is an integral part of UCIʼs lower-division writing curriculum.
A peer tutoring program is a natural extension of this classroom-based work. “Research in the field of
Article author and peer tutor Annabel
Adams works with Nick Lynes on an advertising analysis assignment.
composition pedagogy indicates that students learn well from peer tutors in one-on-one conferences,” says Susan
Cross, writing specialist in the English department and peer tutor trainer.
According to Muriel Harris of
Purdue University in her article,
“Talking in the Middle: Why
Writers Need Writing Tutors,” tutors occupy a realm between student and teacher, encouraging and fostering independence in the student. Harris says one-on-one writing consultations create an atmosphere conducive to intellectual progress. “The peer tutors are free to admit that they are not infallible and that they too are seeking answers,” Harris says. This is important, she says, because it encourages students to recognize that learning to write well is a quest in which writers of all levels are
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Cathy Palmer, head of education and outreach in the Library, coteaches the program with Cross.
“Providing academic support services like writing and library research tutors in the dorms is one more avenue that will make it in the residence halls makes the service in a location that is convenient to students at a time that they are most likely to be working on a paper.”
According to Randall Sessler, a fourth-year English major and peer tutor, for many freshmen, going to see a professor one-on-one in office conferences prove to be an equally valuable, rewarding experience for students and peer tutors alike.”
Annabel Adams is a fourth-year
English major and a writing and library research peer tutor.
The 2005-2006 peer tutors: Randi Meyer, Annabel Adams, Randie students aware that immersion in the academic side of the university is the real point of their education,”
Palmer says.
The brainchild of Dr. Lydia Soleil, graduate student career consultant, the program is meant to provide a unique service to freshmen living in the residence halls. The program differentiates itself from others in its proximity and convenience to the students—not to mention it doesnʼt cost students a dime.
“By attending peer tutoring, students will get chances to work on their writing and research in a supportive environment with an understanding peer who can coach them as they develop as writers and researchers,” Soleil said. “Having
Contributor: Alexandra Sartor
Editor: Susan C. Jarratt
Design and Production: Iveta Cruse
Published by the Office of the Campus
Writing Coordinator www.writing.uci.edu
hours is quite intimidating. “Peer tutors offer a relaxed environment to not only discuss actual drafts but also the studentʼs ideas,” Sessler says. “For first-year students adjusting to the college environment meeting with someone your own age and someone who has been through the same struggles is very reassuring. I feel students are more comfortable around their peers and are less concerned with screening ideas.”
The program is well on its way accomplishing its goal of aiding freshmen. “I think the program is important because it supplements all of the ways UCI currently supports students enrolled in writing classes, combines writing and library-research instruction in an innovative manner, fosters the goals of the First-Year Initiative, and gives upper-division students an opportunity to help lowerdivision students while gaining some experience in the field of writing instruction,” Cross says. “I hope the
The CWC will offer two workshops to Social Science TAs during the
Spring quarter. Advanced graduate students will receive training in developing a syllabus and designing effective writing prompts. Dates and locations TBA.
(continued from page 1) of transferability of knowledge and skills from one writing course to another. The second phase of research will further assess what may be a disconnect for students in some fields between their lower- and upperdivision writing courses.
Researchers will interview 64 upperdivision writing students about the pedagogical memory they carry with them from course to course. The questions will concern what writing instruction students remember from their lower- and upper- division courses, what specific writing terminology can they recall, and in what ways they apply their writing skills throughout their coursework.
For a summary of the findings from the first phase of the project, please visit http://www.writing.uci.edu/ research.html.
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The office of the Campus Writing
Coordinator announces five writing awards that recognize excellence in student writing in upper-division courses (numbered 100 and above). Prizes will be awarded to students enrolled in spring and fall 2005 and winter 2006. Only one submission per student will be accepted. Winners will be honored in a ceremony in the spring quarter.
The deadline for submissions in all categories is Monday April 17,
2006. The award categories are:
Awards for Excellent Upper-
Division Academic Writing
This award honors both the student writer and the instructor of the course. The submission will include the instructorʼs assignment, the studentʼs paper, and a brief evaluative comment from the instructor pointing out the strengths of the writing in discipline-specific terms (e.g., why it succeeds as a writing in biology, sociology, philosophy, etc.) Writings submitted for this award are not restricted to “W” course papers and should not exceed fifteen written pages, excluding extra material.
Award for Effective Public
Writing
This award recognizes writing directed to audiences outside the classroom for the purposes of influencing attitudes or policies on matters of public concern. The writing may have been generated in a class, but it might also come out of the activities of a club or organization. Submissions should not exceed fifteen pages.
Award for a Writing Portfolio
This award allows a student to compile pieces of writing from a number of courses, showing achievement over the years of undergraduate study in a range of styles, forms, and disciplinary areas. The portfolio should include a minimum of three selections; the maximum length is 50 pages of writing including a reflective statement.
For more information, including submission requirements, criteria for judgment, and award amounts, see http://www.writing.uci.edu/news.html
Members of the UCI community received a special Halloween treat when Andrea Lunsford (Stanford
University) and Jenn Fishman
(University of Tennessee) visited the campus to present the results of the Stanford Study of Writing on
October 31, 2005. The longitudinal study follows 189 student writers from the Stanford class of 2005 for five years, beginning in their freshman year and concluding with their first post-baccalaureate year.
Lunsford and Fishman collected all the writing the students were willing to submit to the study, including written work produced for classes as well as self-sponsored writing such as e-mail or Web pages.
With this massive archive at their disposal, they are beginning to draw conclusions about how Stanford students think, produce, and perform as writers.
The presentation featured profiles of several student writers and
showcased the wide variety of writing students undertake. One woman put her skills as a bilingual writer to work producing newsletters and other materials in support of
Stanford service workers. A premed student submitted a poster and pamphlet he created for a global
AIDS education group. Additionally, he designed a Web site related to cleft palate surgery and a CD-rom on dental anatomy. Yet another student flourished as a spoken word poet and, in conjunction with the Stanford
Writing Center, helped develop the
Stanford Spoken Word Collective.
While the Stanford students wrote in widely different genres and on a huge variety of topics, the study interviews revealed a common thread in their purposes as writers. As Lunsford and Fishman explained, the students frequently characterized good writing as writing that “does something,” pointing to what the researchers understand to be performative and activist
Andrea Lunsford introduces the findings of the
Stanford Study of Writing.
components of the studentsʼ writing.
The event was well-attended by members of the Southern California rhetoric and writing community including visitors from UC Riverside and San Diego State University. The newest group of graduate-student composition instructors were also in attendance and the presentation became a useful point of reference and object of study as they progressed through their seminar on rhetoric and the teaching of writing, led by professor Susan Jarratt.
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