Improving the Writing Skills of Students in Introductory Psychology

Abstract

This article describes a writing component for an introductory psychology course and reports its effects on students' writing skills. During the semester, each student wrote about 3,000 words in response to questions on weekly essay tests. Test questions were drawn from a larger set handed out in advance, permitting students to organize, write, and revise trial answers before the test. Essays were graded for content and writing skill. Two variations of this format are reported and evaluated for their impact on students' writing skills over the semester. The more successful program restricted essay questions to four rhetorical forms students encounter in freshman composition classes and graded the essays for orderly presentation of ideas.