Students as Scholars & Writers: Teaching Undergraduate Writing in a Hybrid Course

Abstract

This presentation explores an innovative approach for engaging undergraduates in the writing process. As universities across the country struggle to find ways of improving student writing and critical thinking, the Students as Scholars initiative encourages faculty to create new, exciting ways of inspiring students to embark a life-long path of scholarly inquiry and writing improvement. Through an iterative, intensive, hybrid course design, our course affords students multiple opportunities for learning, practicing, and reflecting on the craft of academic writing. This presentation discusses how we integrate writing into a Capstone in Criminology, Law & Society course, where students learn a new topic, independently and collectively collect and analyze data, and write a research paper all in the course of one semester. Based on 2.5 years of participant observation and pre- and post-semester survey data, we discuss the processes students undergo while learning to research and write as scholars.