Using structured writing communities to facilitate undergraduate research writing

This article outlines a structured writing community activity originally created to assist communication majors complete their capstone projects. This activity draws upon the Writing Accountability Group (WAG) strategy that has been utilized to facilitate graduate student and early career faculty writing. The current article provides an overview of a semester-long activity that builds upon the WAG format by providing several avenues of additional support to help undergraduate students establish goals and make incremental progress on a specified project over the course of the semester or quarter session. Information regarding how to facilitate a structured writing community as well as potential assessments are provided. Strategies to help instructors overcome barriers to success are also outlined.

Communication capstone, Communication theory, Research methods, or any other course that requires a high-stakes assignment.

Students will (1) develop achievable, short-term goals related to project completion; (2) prioritize tasks associated with project completion; and subsequently (3) execute and submit a completed capstone project or senior thesis.