Opportunities for Research

Opportunities for research and scholarship offer another powerful way to strengthen our community. Such opportunities include:

• participating in the continuing Stanford Study of Writing, which is following 189 members (12%) of the Class of 2005 through all four years of their undergraduate careers and then one year beyond. Now in its final year, this research project is gathering massive amounts of data: student writing of all kinds, student responses to survey questionnaires, transcripts of student interviews, and more. This wealth of information offers almost limitless possibilities for research;
• joining in the development, delivery, and ongoing revision of PWR 1 and PWR 2, the courses that constitute the Stanford Writing and Rhetoric Requirement.
• helping to design and carry out the analysis of PWR and WIM that will culminate in our first major Program review since the implementation of the new requirement (2007-8).
• helping design research projects to carry out in the context of the Stanford Writing Center (SWC), especially projects that will bring undergraduates onto the research teams. Further, while writing has been part of the curriculum since Stanford’s founding, no complete history exists. Archival records and information gathered through interviews with former directors and students could lead to a history of writing at Stanford.