Project Summary
Welcome to the home of the Upward Project! We are conducting a longitudinal study of undergraduates’ development as writer-researchers at a small, private comprehensive university with a liberal arts mission. We are interested in several facets of student development as they advance through a college curriculum: students’ perceptions of research and sources; how they describe and to what they attribute their own development; and how research interfaces with their writing practices.
Our study uses mixed methods: survey, document collection (student essays and projects, faculty feedback, exemplary artifacts, assessment guidelines), and semistructured interview (individual, group). The study leverages growing interest in collaborative research and professional development work. It involves several writing faculty members (including a Director of First-Year Writing) and librarians as co-investigators. Other resources include Institutional Research and faculty and student researchers associated with a campus Survey Research Center.