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8 U n d e R g R a d U aT e R e s e a R C h e R s a s m a K e R s o f K n o w l e d g e i n C o m p o s i T i o n i n T h e w R i T i n g s T U d i e s m a j o R Joyce Kinkead How can we account for these fresh and startling voices? North, 121 North’s milestone volume, published in 1987, endorses the work of Bruffee and Macrorie, who propose that students within writing courses and writing programs “have more right to textual authority than has been traditionally afforded them” (118). North calls for textual authority for students within writing courses and courses such as introduction to philosophy, in which he analyzed three students’ writing over the course of a term. His research question? “How can we account for these fresh and startling voices?” Twenty-five years on from the publication of The Making of Knowledge in Composition: Portrait of an Emerging Field (MKC), the “fresh and startling voices” include not only those students writing in the philosophy class that he explicates in his chapter on “The Critics,” but also those in the new writing studies major. In this chapter, I call not only for the textual authority of students who choose to major in writing studies but the acknowledgement that students can and do join us as makers of knowledge. A new brand of student writer-scholars represents early versions of ourselves—compositionists in training. These young researchers increasingly are finding ways into the profession at the undergraduate level, many of them through relatively recent degree programs in writing. Composition studies, no longer “emerging ,” is instead evolving. North did not and probably could not envision the emergence of majors in writing studies nor students as makers of knowledge in composition studies, but his volume certainly anticipates the new major. 138 TH E C H A N G I N G OF KN OWLED G E I N C OM P OSI T I ON Undergraduate research, termed “the pedagogy for the 21st century ” in a Joint Statement of Principles composed by the Council on Undergraduate Research and National Conferences on Undergraduate Research ( 2005; 2005), has experienced tremendous growth over the last twenty years. Unfortunately, the movement has been slow to gain ground in composition studies. In fact, Dotterer (2002) notes that “humanities departments have been the slowest to participate” (83) in this “shift in how scholarship is practiced in a broad range of disciplines” (83). A definition of undergraduate research may be helpful at this juncture . According to the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), “Undergraduate research is an inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate that makes an original, intellectual, or creative contribution to the field” (About the council). In terms of composition studies , North characterizes practice as inquiry (one way in which scholars make knowledge) in this way: researchers identify a problem, search for causes and then possible solutions, test solutions in practice, validate, and disseminate (36). Students engaged in undergraduate research in writing thus begin by identifying and acquiring methodology appropriate to the discipline. This may be done through modeling and direct instruction. But teaching about methodology lays only the foundation . Undergraduate researchers, working with a faculty mentor, must develop a concrete problem to investigate—the researchable question that, when studied, fills a gap in the profession’s knowledge base. This phase also calls for a review of literature germane to the study. The student then carries out the project, and finally, the results of the study are shared with peers and/or disseminated to a professional audience. This last step, dissemination, is too often absent, a step that North calls a crucial element of inquiry. The importance of dissemination was brought home to me shortly after the publication of MKC. In my own teaching, particularly a seminar designed for students employed as tutors in a writing-across-the-curriculum program, I came to believe that meaningful, authentic writing assignments, as advocated by Walter Loban (1976), are essential to students ’ growth and professional development. At the time, I could not have articulated that I was becoming an advocate for undergraduate research. Collaboratively, the students and I developed case studies to be used in future seminars. By the end of the project, we felt that these cases were...

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