Research Paper Instruction in the Undergraduate Writing Program

Abstract

In 1961 Ambrose Manning determined through a national survey that 83% of all colleges and universities were requiring a research paper in their freshman composition programs. In some respects Manning's survey was quite limited; it consisted of five questions addressing only freshman level, and only 171 of 250 schools queried returned questionnaires, three fifths of which had gone to Manning's own southeast area. Nevertheless results of survey probably justified conclusion that The research paper has more status presently than any other one thing in Freshman English program (The Present Status of Research Paper in Freshman English: A National Survey, College Composition and Communication, 12 [1961], 73). Although no inquiries on subject of even such limited scope as Manning's have been undertaken during intervening twenty years, atmosphere of 60s encouraged general impression that research paper instruction was on wane, an impression certainly conveyed in Veronica Willis' 1970 dissertation, An Investigation of Use of Documented Research Paper in College Courses (United States International University). Willis' survey, which was limited to a sampling of teachers in all subject areas, plus English department chairpersons, in thirty-five institutions of higher learning throughout state of California, concluded that although the majority of freshman composition courses still require student to write documented research papers ..., [there] is a . . . toward eliminating documented research paper from college freshman course (p. 68). This perception of a trend was apparently based on fact that 43% of 67% of California English departments offering research paper instruction allowed their teachers to decide individually whether such instruction would in fact be given. If Willis' review of literature