Phase II Research and future studies

Phase II Multi-Institutional Study: Writing Across the Curriculum

Phase II of our research applies the same questions and research methodology to researched papers written for contexts other than first-year writing courses. This includes papers written for (non-first year) writing intensive courses and papers written for discipline-specific writing courses.  In addition to comparing institutions within each of these data sets, we will be able to compare some Phase II data to Phase I data from the same institution.

We are frequently asked whether the Phase I findings indicate a lack of engagement with first-year writing courses or problems with the FYW research assignment as a genre, or whether they reflect larger problems with the ways students integrate sources into researched papers across the curriculum. In comparison with data from Phase I of the study, this new data will allow us to address these questions.

Studies Currently in the Planning or Pilot Phase

Several research studies exploring the impact of different interventions on researched writing are currently in the pilot phase. These include writing centers, library-based information literacy instruction, L2 tutorials, and specific pedagogies and assignments.

Future Studies

Other contexts that have been proposed for study include source-based writing placement tests, papers written prior to the widespread use of the Internet, prize-winning or jury-selected student essays published locally and nationally in edited collections, and professional papers published in academic journals in different disciplines.

Phase II  research is  currently underway. Please contact us if you would like to know more about any of these projects or participate in any of them. We invite participation in these studies.