kEllER | WHETHER THE inTERnET mAkES STudEnTS BETTER WRiTERS 173The Stanford study is trying to collect as much of
that material as possible. Starting in 2001, research-
ers at the university began collecting extensive writ-
ing samples from 189 students, roughly 12 percent
of the freshman class. Students were given access to
a database where they could upload copies of their
work, and some were interviewed annually about
their writing experiences. By 2006 researchers had
amassed nearly 14,000 pieces of writing.
Students in the study “almost always” had more
enthusiasm for the writing they were doing outside
of class than for their academic work, says Andrea A.
Lunsford, the study’s director. Mr. Otuteye submitted
about 700 pieces of writing and became the study’s
most prolific contributor.
The report’s authors say they included nonaca-
demic work to better investigate the links between
academic and nonacademic writing in students’ writ-
ing development. One of the largest existing longi-
tudinal studies of student writing, which started at
Harvard university in the late 1990s, limited its sam-
ple to academic writing, which prevented researchers
from drawing direct conclusions about that done out-
side of class.
In looking at students’ out-of-class writing, the
Stanford researchers say they found several traits that
were distinct from in-class work. Not surprisingly, the
writing was self-directed; it was often used to connect
with peers, as in social networks; and it usually had a
broader audience.
The writing was also often associated with accom-
plishing an immediate, concrete goal, such as orga-
nizing a group of people or accomplishing a political
end, says Paul M. rogers, one of the study’s authors.
The immediacy might help explain why students
stayed so engaged, he says. “When you talked to
them about their out-of-class writing, they would
talk about writing to coordinate out-of-class activity,”
says Mr. rogers, an assistant professor of english at
George Mason university. “A lot of them were a lotUnderscores the
difficulty of drawing
conclusions either
way. This summary
of the Stanford
study suggests that
researchers there
have responded to
the complexity of
measuring outcomes
of writing in any
medium.14151617Cites the study at 18
George Mason.
Writing on blogs is
more engaging than
writing in school, and
it represents the
ways students sus-
tain social networks
(paras 17-20).07_GRE_5344_Ch7_151_210.indd 173 11/19/14 1:59 PM