Writing Outside of Class: The Untapped Potential of Students' Non-Academic Writing

Students compose copious amounts of writing outside of school, but they do not always see its relevance to their academic work. Based on survey data (n =138), our study presents students' self-reported gains from their non-academic writing experiences and their learning (or lack thereof) from their non-academic writing struggles. We argue that students' non-academic writing experiences have untapped potential as sources of transferable writing knowledge and suggest that building discussions of students' non-academic writing into academic contexts can support the development of student writing expertise and a deeper culture of writing on campuses. We conclude that writing programs have the opportunity to enhance faculty development, and hence student achievement, by drawing on the value of non-academic writing to students' development as writers overall.