Write to Think Project

The Write to Think Project

What we know about writing can be summed up in two essential points:

• All people are capable of learning to write.

• It is hard to succeed in life without good writing skills.

This project is designed to gain a better understanding of how we can use writing as a tool for thinking. Writing provides a permanent and external record for what we think, and can create a unique forum for the development of higher order concepts. By studying how people use writing as an extension of thinking, we can improve learning outcomes, as well as learning strategies, for both writing and critical thinking. 

The Write-to-Think Project is focused on investigating the relationship between thinking and writing. Two streams of literature come together in this project: research on the Cognitive Writing Process; and the very recent findings from the expanding field of Self-Regulated Learning. One focuses on the vast range of cognitive writing activities; the other on the means to internalize these writing skills.

Project Goals:

• Understand the relationship between writing and thinking

• Improve teaching methods for writing

•  Develop critical thinking skills through teaching writing 

•  Link developmental writing programs to critical thinking projects

• Create communities of practice among practitioners of critical writing programs

• Expand writing-to-think platforms online through MOOCs and other open-access programs 

• Provide free modules for teaching Write-to-Think methodology 

The Research Project

The Write-to-Think Project is designed to be inserted seamlessly into content courses as natural writing assignments. Writing is taught in two segments; one product-oriented (rhetorical) and the other process-based (cognitive). Three short course-related essays are assigned over  the semester, one after traditional writing preparation; one after a Cognitive Writing Process workshop; and the third based on the student’s choice of method.
The writing workshop can function as a review session prior to exams, as well as a summary and critique assignment for content mastery. For most students, the Project is an invisible part of their program. In debrief sessions, participants have reported no difference in workload or content when compared with other courses. In addition to writing instruction, self-regulated learning strategies are included to improve content mastery.

The Project incorporates short essay work from students in all grades; at this time the focus is on collecting samples from students in post-secondary settings. The results are viewed in aggregate, so there are no individual performance assessments. The evaluations of essays are assigned a code as soon as they are collected and remain blind for the duration of the study. No personal information is collected; there is a form for general demographic data that is entered for each cohort to track gender, age, years of study in English-language settings, and nationality.
Students are briefed on the details of the protocol, the benefits of participating, and the option to decline during the first week of class. They may choose to withdraw at any time during the course of the study. Findings from the study are available to all participants upon request. All individual submissions remain confidential.

The Applications

The findings from this study have a variety of valuable applications, both to students, faculty, and the education industry. The primary goal is to develop methods for teaching critical thinking within course content; the second goal is to disseminate these methods through online open-source learning platforms.
Students Benefits
Participants have reported improved writing and study skills; stronger conceptual development and analytic abilities; and an increase in overall academic performance.
Faculty Benefits
Faculty have noted measurable improvements in student writing, content mastery, and analysis and synthesis skills. Post-course student satisfaction surveys have identified the writing workshop as a valuable learning experience.