What DU Students Write,
What DU Professors Expect
Doug Hesse

Undergraduates at DU seem well on their way to producing the eight pounds of writing that Nancy Sommers famously found that Harvard students did during their four years. Of freshmen completing the fall quarter at DU, 67% reported producing more than 16 pages in their first year seminars. In all other courses combined, 55% indicated writing 21 or more pages.

If students were busy writing, their professors were surely busy assigning and responding. In reporting on a recent undergraduate course they taught, 25% of the faculty assigned more than 30 pages worth of writing, while a full 90% assigned at least 11 pages.

These are some early findings in two studies initiated by Doug Hesse and currently underway in the University Writing Program. One study asked all students enrolled in WRIT 1122 several questions about writing experiences in the fall quarter, as well as prior to DU. 694 out of 868 (79%) replied. Students also submitted a paper they had written for a course during the term.

A second survey asked 321 tenure track faculty who had taught at least one undergraduate course in 2005 06 about their assigning practices and writing impressions. 134 of them (42%) responded. Among other interesting findings from the faculty survey are:

More than 50% assigned PowerPoint or oral presentations, 10% had students make websites, and 30% assigned audio or visual projects.

About 20% had their students keep a journal or notebook.

More than 52% had students write one or more short essays; about 40% had them write longer essays; about 17% had them write long research papers.

0f their own writing experiences, 28% of students reported spending 6 or more hours per week doing non-assigned writing such as email, Facebook, MySpace, or blogging. They overwhelmingly characterized high school writing instruction as formalistic, emphasizing the five-paragraph essay, grammar and spelling, thesis statements, transitions, and paragraphing.

There's something of a mismatch between what students experienced in high school and what faculty most value. When presented with 15 features of good writing and asked to choose seven they thought vital, faculty selected (in order): clarity (76%); quality of analysis (73%); logical development (72%); coverage of subject matter and depth of understanding (69%); and grammar/usage

These preliminary findings merely tip the iceberg of more extensive studies. Writing Program researchers will analyze the student writings gathered from the fall term and interview faculty. More ambitiously, the Program will begin a longitudinal study that traces the writing of 100 freshmen through four years at DU.

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