Danielle Stone/Winonan

Dr. Paul Johnson and Dr. Ethan Krase, both professors of Winona State University’s English department, have recently finished a long-term research project spanning over a six-year period, studying the development of student writing, as the student progressed from freshman to college graduate.

Their results and conclusions from the data will be published in three different academic journals: “Across the Disciplines”, “The Journal of Teaching Writing”, and “Writing Across the Curriculum”. Along with being published, Dr. Johnson and Dr. Krase will be presenting at the National Conference on College Composition and Communication this March in Las Vegas, Nev.

Their study started in 2006 with an original study to gather information about the freshman English 111 course, along with improvement of student writing.

“We did typical empirical work by collecting essays at the start of the course and at the end of the course, and had people rate the essays in a double-blind view,” Johnson said.

The data collected inspired Johnson and Krase to continue to study student writing and follow a few of the students who had participated in the first study throughout their college careers to see how writing skills transitioned out into different fields of study.

Out of the 1,501 students used in the prior study, only 12 students, whose areas of study ranged from Biology to Composite Engineering, and even Advertising to Psychology, were studied as the research continued into a qualitative longitudinal study, which looks at a specific area or subject over a long period of time.

To conduct the second and more in-depth study that stemmed out of the first, Johnson and Krase recruited eight research assistants. The research project included assessment of the participants’ writing, about 40 hours worth of interviews, and data collection.

Johnson and Krase chose to have the research assistants conduct the interviews. “The students felt more comfortable with peers. They told the research assistants things they never would have told us,” Krase said.

Since the study was conducted using a small number of subjects, the information gathered cannot be used to describe student population in general; rather, it pertains to the subset used.

The data Johnson and Krase collected showed how the attitude of the student can affect the quality of writing a student produces. Out of the 12 students, 10 of the students wanted to continue writing and develop better writing skills needed in their specific field, in addition to branching out to other types of writing to improve their writing skills. These students showed significant growth in their writing. Two of the students did not have as much drive, and their writing only improved slightly, though all of the students did improve throughout their college years.

“Those student who did well were the ones who embraced the writing process,” Krase said. “The more people own their education, the more fully they say this is mine and I will control it, the more they embrace that, the more fully they can realize their potential and beyond.”

The information gathered has had an impact on both Johnson and Krase as educators. Referring to the transferability of writing skills across majors, Johnson said, “I honestly think, even when teaching English 111, right now I have a better view of what is to be expected of students as they transition into their majors. I can speak with confidence to writers that the more progress they can make now, the more they can achieve later.”

Contact Danielle at [email protected]