Using structured writing communities to facilitate undergraduate research writing

Abstract

This article outlines a structured writing community activity originally created to assist communication majors complete their capstone projects. This activity draws upon the Writing Accountability Group (WAG) strategy that has been utilized to facilitate graduate student and early career faculty writing. The current article provides an overview of a semester-long activity that builds upon the WAG format by providing several avenues of additional support to help undergraduate students establish goals and make incremental progress on a specified project over the course of the semester or quarter session. Information regarding how to facilitate a structured writing community as well as potential assessments are provided. Strategies to help instructors overcome barriers to success are also outlined.

Courses

Communication Capstone, Communication Theory, Research Methods, or any other course that requires a high-stakes assignment.

Objectives

Students will (1) develop achievable short-term goals related to project completion; (2) prioritize tasks associated with project completion; and subsequently (3) execute and submit a completed project.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Terri Weems for her support while writing this manuscript. The author would also like to thank Dr. Lakeshia Legette Jones for her thoughtful feedback as she revised this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

Manuscript preparation was supported in part by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to the University of Mississippi Medical Center (Grant #2R25HL126145 – MPIs Beech and Norris).