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Exploratory Survey on the Status of the Research Paper Assignment
in First Year Writing/Composition Courses

The write-up about the results of my exploratory survey will appear in an upcoming issue of Composition Forum. In the meantime, I thought I’d provide a snapshot of some of the results here, fyi.

Among the population of respondents to this survey: 90% require first year writing/composition (FYW/C); 73% require a research paper assignment in FYW/C.

Typical research assignments in FYW/C: 6% traditional research paper assignment; 94% alternative research assignment.

(Note: Respondents commonly describe the traditional assignment as: an informative/explanatory piece of writing, written in an objective voice, using library resources, including online databases.)

Most common alternative (to the traditional research paper) assignment: 36% researched argument; 12% analysis; 9% mixed media; 7% annotated bibliography; 6% proposal.

Most common learning outcomes for research assignments: 12% ability to integrate/synthesize sources; 12% ability to use format/documentation/citation style; 9% ability to evaluate sources; 8% evidence of critical thinking/reading/writing; 7% ability to locate a variety of sources; 7% ability to argue a point.

If you have any questions or comments about the survey/methods or if you would like to learn results other than those posted here, please send me an email (hoodc@stockton.edu).

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in this project! Your responses were thoughtful and extremely important to understanding the status of an very common assignment in first year writing/composition courses.




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CarraLeahHood 		Latest page update: made by CarraLeahHood , Mar 16 2010, 1:25 PM EDT (about this update About This Update CarraLeahHood snapshot of results 4 - CarraLeahHood


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