Camping in the disciplines: Assessing the effect of writing camps on graduate student writers

In the past ten years, an increasing number of universities have begun organizing writing “camps,” or full-week immersion experiences, in an effort to address the increased need to support graduate student writing. Outside of anecdotes and testimonials, we have previously had very little data about these camps’ success. This study, conducted over the course of three such camps, attempts to address this lack of data by measuring graduate student writing confidence levels and self-regulation efforts both before and after attendance. An analysis of our preliminary results suggests that writing camps that include process-oriented programming result in small but meaningful improvements in attitudes and behaviors that positively affect graduate student writing.