A mixed methods case study: exploring the effectiveness of a community college's Business Writing Across the Core program for improving business writing

Karen Susan Britt

doi:10.17918/ja6p-kf58

Research has shown that colleges and universities are producing a generation of graduates with poor written communication skills. These deficiencies can negatively affect their job readiness. It has been noted that American firms may spend as much as $3.1 billion annually to remediate their employees' writing deficiencies. As American firms scan the educational landscape of recent college graduates for potential new employees, the lack of preparedness in current employees as previously noted calls into question the writing curriculum of higher education. Community college students' complete career-oriented programs and enter the workplace after two-three years of education; writing preparation of these students is an issue worth investigating. Community college students represent a diverse population of educational backgrounds and often first-generation college students who lack the reading and writing skills for college-level learning. Therefore, the writing across the curriculum (WAC) and writing in the discipline (WID) programming at community colleges are essential to prepare these students as they graduate and enter the workforce. The purpose of this mixed methods case study was to explore the impact the Writing Across the Business Core (BWAC) program has at the community college level and to explore the students' perceptions of their preparation to write in the workplace. The effectiveness of the BWAC program was explored by determining whether a significant improvement in students' writing skills, as determined by a pre- and post-production analysis of business documents in four business courses has occurred. This exploration was conducted in Business and Economic classes on a community college campus. The quantitative method asked participants to prepare specific business documents before and after BWAC writing instruction and compared their scores against a BWAC rubric. A comparison of the means using SPSS software provided the data for the quantitative analysis. The qualitative method ascertained the perception and experience of business writing through semi-structured individual interviews and a focus group from participants who were preparing to graduate from the Business Management program and enter into the workplace. In addition, an analysis of the common themes among the students' perceptions of their ability to prepare quality business documents was undertaken. The most significant findings from the quantitative method illustrated that participants had a significant improvement of 48% in the mechanics of writing from the pre- and post-writing assignment. The mechanics of writing includes, literacy - vocabulary, spelling, sentence construction, grammar, punctuation, and paragraph construction. The qualitative method produces three emerging themes, business writing, academic rigor, and program experiences. The participants commented how they desired more opportunities to write business documents and needed more detailed feedback on their writing submissions. A summarization of the study showed that the BWAC program had a positive effect on the participants' writing skill to prepare business documents. In addition, students welcomed the opportunity to write business documents and understood the development of effective writing skill is critical as they enter the workplace. Keywords: writing deficiencies, community college students, business writing, writing strategies, Business program, perceptions, Genre Theory, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), Writing in the Discipline (WID), Business Writing Across the Core (BWAC).

A mixed methods case study: exploring the effectiveness of a community college's Business Writing Across the Core program for improving business writing

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A mixed methods case study: exploring the effectiveness of a community college's Business Writing Across the Core program for improving business writing

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