Changing Writing Behavior for Effective Dissertation Writing

Changing Writing Behavior for Effective Dissertation Writing

Grant:
Investigating Student Learning Grant (ISL)
Academic Year:
2011 - 2012 (June 1, 2011 through May 31, 2012)
Funding Requested:
$4,000.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
lcicciar
pdbaron
beg
Overview of the Project:
This proposal sought to build on current successes of the Dissertation Writing Institute (DWI) by better identifying and measuring practices critical in effectively changing dissertation writing behavior; to learn from the practices and the experiences of 72 DWI participants from the last three years of pre- and post-program surveys and other data the institute has amassed; to identify programmatic improvement and development including evaluation, assessment, and outreach; and to enhance our outreach to graduate students, faculty, and departments at the University of Michigan by discerning and distributing current best practices for dissertation writing to students beyond the dissertation program.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:
. In particular, we hoped to answer two key questions to help us better analyze and understand the DWI’s success. 1. How does the DWI change reported writing behavior from the perspective of graduate student participants? 2. Which features of the DWI do students report as supporting these changes?
Project Achievements:
This exploratory study focused its examination on the role of Sweetland faculty support in the DWI. Our findings suggest that students value their interactions with writing consultants because those interactions support the affective, conceptual, and behavioral facets of dissertation writing. Student responses show that interactions with writing consultants helped them conceptualize their dissertation. This finding indicates that non-expert but experienced writing center faculty can effectively promote positive change in dissertation writers.
Continuation:
Not technically, though we will continue to collect and analyze data and present on our findings.
Dissemination:
We presented on our findings at the 2012 Conference on College Communication (CCCC) in St. Louis, and have been accepted to present further analysis of our findings at the 2013 CCCC. We plan to arrange a workshop with Rackham to share findings with faculty as we continue to promote the DWI and spread word about this program throughout the university. We will present a final report on the ISL grant at a Sweetland faculty meeting this year.
Advice to your Colleagues:
The ISL grant process was extremely valuable in providing us the opportunity and support to analyze and assess what is working in the DWI and why. Mary Wright helped us set up and coordinate the program’s pre- and post- program surveys four years ago and we gathered a great deal of data to examine since then. Mary provided additional help through the grant process and Deborah Meizlish provided useful guidance and questions as we sorted through our data and findings this last year. The grant gave us an opportunity to more closely understand the work of this program so that can better share our findings with graduate students here, faculty working with graduate students writing the dissertation, and other institutions hoping to learn from our experiences.
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