Have you forgotten what it is like to be first-year student, struggling to get acclimated to college-level writing? We certainly did! So here’s what we did: We began following 25 students from the Class of 2022 during their first year at Wesleyan. We interviewed and surveyed these students multiple times through the the year–twice in the fall and once in the spring–and collected one paper that they wrote each semester. Hence, this project is both qualitative, quantitative, and longitudinal. What we wanted to know:
How does students’ writing develop over the course of their first year in college?
What at Wesleyan shapes their development as writers?
Of particular interest to us is how students’ sense of themselves as writers may shape the “micro-decisions” they make during their first year, many of which may fuel their writing development in important (and not always positive ways). As Lori Salem (2016) has observed:
If someone doesn’t visit the writing center, does that mean that they don’t have any questions about their writing? Or does it mean that they have questions, but they are choosing to ask someone else? Or does it mean that they have questions, but they are choosing not to ask them at all? And if they are choosing not to ask them, is that because they simply don’t care enough about their assignments? Or is it because they are embarrassed to seek help?
