Producing Better Writers in Sociology: A Programmatic Approach

Abstract

High-quality undergraduate student writing is a common and important objective for sociology programs while at the same time a continuous challenge. Programs often struggle to address writing adequately because of the difficulty of fully evaluating student writing and responding to any identified limitations, largely because of the impact on faculty workload. A comprehensive evaluation followed by a response to student writing in a large program was conducted by all faculty members. The result of the student writing analysis was the development of a departmental writing rubric, along with programmatic response to identified writing issues. After evaluation of student writing, key areas were identified with which students struggled (argumentative thesis development, citation, revision). These limitations were addressed using a consistent approach that was integrated into the core curriculum to address student writing in a more systematic manner, which minimized the impact on faculty workload.