Writing Across the Curriculum Within Communication Sciences and Disorders : A Focus on American Psychological Association Formatting

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the explicit implementation of American Psychological Association (APA)-style resources on writing products at the graduate level in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD). This project aims to develop disciplinary writing skills in future professional environments by assessing APA formatting skills both before and after implementation of specific APA resources within a graduate-level classroom. Future projects could address additional writing needs within the CSD department, as well as across all writing curriculums at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Submissions of a single written assignment in a graduate voice course were analyzed using the CSD Writing Rubric developed by the department. These analyses from one offering of the course demonstrated that many students displayed errors in accurately formatting their assignments to adhere to APA formatting. APA resources were created and provided to students in a subsequent offering. Preliminary analyses indicate a reduction in errors after the explicit instruction in APA style. The resources provided assisted in decreasing the number of APA errors, thus improving the quality of the writing in the assignment. Positive results on this small scale suggest that explicit instruction should be utilized within the classroom to enhance a specific disciplinary writing goals.