Developing Graduate Writing Habits and Skills: Establishing Writing Sessions with STEM Graduate Students

Abstract

STEM graduate students are expected to develop strong writing skills as fundamental components of measured success. Based on a targeted learning outcome for an interdisciplinary graduate program, and a need to support STEM graduate student writing, this study analyzes the effectiveness of a writing community, implemented to assist with enhancing students’ writing habits and skills. Twenty-nine STEM graduate students in various fields participated in this multi-year long study, analyzed using a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. The analysis demonstrated the implementation of structured writing sessions within a writing community environment enhanced students’ writing habits, and development in multiple areas. Furthermore, enhancement increased students’ positive perceptions of writing. Knowing the importance of writing success at the graduate level and beyond, ways to support graduate student writing must be developed to increase practice and confidence toward writing in STEM disciplines for sustainable writing and career success.

KEYWORDS:

• STEM
• graduate education
• writing instruction
• writing support
• writing community
• writing development

Disclosure statement

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data findings

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [WKZ], upon reasonable request.

Human rights statements and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the approved IRB. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.