The writing assignments for psychology have been divided between focal courses in the lower upper division. Appendix E contains tables describing the writing required in each of the focal courses in psychology. Each table includes a description of the type of writing in the course, language from the writing prompts, and the task category (Horowitz, 1986). The column labeled “W” gives the relative weight of the writing as a number between 0 and 4. At the lowest end of the scale, writing does not con- tribute to the overall course grade. A weight of four would indicate that 75% or more of course grade is determined through scores on writing assignments.
Seventy-five percent of the lower division courses in this study do not include writing assign- ments as a form of assessment. At this level, students are primarily assessed through multiple choice exams. The only course including writing assignments as a method of formal assessment, Introduction to Applied Psychology (2040), requires four summary-response assignments making up thirty percent of the final course grade. The Introduction to Human Sexuality (Psyc 2070) syllabus suggests students take lecture and reading notes and lists essays and short answers as exam question types, but longer writing projects are not required. The finding that very little writing is required at the lower division is not new and has been well documented in the literature (Conrad, 1996; Cortes, 2004; Hale et al., 1996).
At the upper division, two courses (psychology 3510 and psychology 4160) did not include writ- ing assignments as part of the course grade. Psychology 3510 is the first course required in a sequence
of two research design and methodology courses and focuses on statistical analysis and designing rigor- ous studies. The second in the series, psychology 3530 focuses on writing a research proposal. This may explain why writing is not required in the first course of the sequence. The second course, psychology 4160, Theories of Personality assesses students using four multiple choice and short answer tests. There is no readily apparent reason for excluding writing from the course assessments. In total, forty percent of the psychology courses surveyed for this study solely assess students through examinations. An addi- tional 25% of courses use testing as the primary form of assessment with small writing assignments making up less than 25% of the course grade. This means that only 35% of the undergraduate focal courses in this study assess writing as a substantial percentage of the course grade.
In total, the eight courses with writing requirements yielded 16 assignments with one additional optional assignment. The most frequently assigned category is a summary of /reaction to a reading, in which a student must summarize a reading related to the course content and give either a personal re- action or a critique of the article. Nine of the seventeen writing assignments fall into this category across five courses. In most cases finding an appropriate article is the student’s responsibility, although the in- structor usually provides guidelines. These assignments tend to be the shorter (between 200 words and 1 page) and less cognitively demanding than other more complex papers. Several courses require more than one summary/reaction.
The next most frequently assigned category is connection of theory with data with four assign- ments given in four different courses. The tasks in each assignment vary from watching a film and con- necting the themes in the film with concepts discussed in the course to synthesizing two different theo- ries and commenting on the synthesis within the framework of the course readings. Two courses as- signed research projects with one being a traditional research proposal and the other a rather vague “scholarly paper” written about the student’s original design of a public space. Only one course required a synthesis of multiple sources (in the form of a literature review) and only one case study was assigned.
The assignment categorized as a case study requires students to write a diagnostic impression report based on a case provided by the instructor. The data for the paper was primarily taken from the descrip- tion of the case provided for the students making this fit Horowitz’s definition of a case study assign- ment. However, as Horowitz (1986) notes, the dividing lines between a case study, a connection of theo- ry and data, and a summary/reaction are not “hard and fast.” There is certainly overlap in these types of tasks and the critical thinking skills each requires.
The results of my analysis are analogous to those found by Horowitz. In his study both sum- mary/reaction papers and connection of theory and data were most frequently assigned in psychology courses. Horowitz did have two psychology assignments in the category report on a specified participa- tory experience, while no such assignments were found in my data set. In my interviews with psycholo- gy students, two interviewees mentioned assignments in which they were required to write up inter- views they had conducted and comment on them. Such assignments would fall into this category, but the focal courses in this analysis did not include assignments of this type.
Looking at the percentage of the course grade allocated to writing assignments can illustrate the weight and relative importance of writing in the course. The CTW courses had the highest percentage of the course grade allocated to writing tasks; between 50-74%, a weight of three. The remaining courses varied with regard to the percentage of the course grade given to writing tasks. Writing accounted for less than 25% of the course grade in eight courses and in the remaining two writing accounted for be- tween 25% and 49% of the final grade. There are practical reasons for the number of courses requiring no writing and the number of courses with relatively few (and short) writing assignments in psychology. Psychology is among the largest departments at the university with approximately 1500 undergraduate majors at the time of this study. Classes at the 3000 level and below are capped at 72 students or more (usually more for the 1000 level lecture courses). The 4000 level classes are capped at 48 students. Many instructors are teaching their classes without assistants. The grading load is far too heavy to have
students writing significant amounts in these courses. The CTW courses are capped at 25 students, mak- ing longer, more complex assignments, and a larger number of assignments per semester more feasible.