The Relationship between Instructional Writing Experience and the Quality of Student Writing: Results from a Longitudinal Study in the Minnesota Community College System

A study investigated whether students who are given experience in writing would improve the quality of their writing over the course of an academic year, and whether the amount of improvement would be associated with the amount of instructional writing experience across the curriculum. A 50-minute essay exam designed to assess writing skills was administered at the beginning of the fall term and again at the end of the spring term to 113 students in composition classes at 3 colleges in the Minnesota Community College System. Results showed that students given experience in writing improved the quality of their writing over the course of the academic year (with the gain quite consistent across grade-point-average groups), and that gains in writing quality increased according to the amount of instructional writing experience. A pilot study explored a subsidiary hypothesis that the quality of instructional activities would also contribute to gains in the quality of students' writing. Findings suggest that the quality of writing assignments is likely to be more important than the number of writing assignments students are given. Further writing across the curriculum research should concentrate on identifying features of assignment design which optimize student learning, and on developing a systematic procedure for rating the quality of instructional assignments based on these features. (Three tables of data are included; the essay question and a holistic scoring guide are attached.) (SR)