Mentoring High-Impact Undergraduate Research Experiences

This article illustrates the Ten Salient Practices of Undergraduate Research Mentors with examples for English studies. The authors include both one-to-one and research-team examples, recognizing that although much English scholarship is solitary, peers and near peers play key roles in high-quality, mentored undergraduate research experiences.

The Trajectory of an Undergraduate Researcher

This article focuses on the progress of an undergraduate English major on the scholarship continuum outlined by Laurie Grobman (2009). The student engaged in authentic research in a research methods course for English majors, a class that also meets a university requirement of “quantitative intensive,” and she completed two research projects of note. Her journey has implications and significance for faculty in designing undergraduate research experiences.

Imagining the Future(s) of Writing Studies through the Prism of Undergraduate Research

This article explores the future(s) of undergraduate research in writing studies through representative words of the undergraduates themselves. It reveals their social justice motives, as well as their desire to undertake research that can have real impact. It also questions whether inclusion in our disciplinary community supports—or blunts—those motives, highlighting the need to treat their work as an embodied act that may not be fully activated within traditional definitions of “contributions to knowledge.”

Perdiendo mi persona

Para estudiantes de color who participate in academic research, there is added emotional labor as they make decisions revolving around language, identity, and disclosure. La labor se mantiene invisible para los organizadores de conferencias académicas, y presenta limitaciones a los que son permitidos de participar. Dr. Rachel Herzl-Betz y Hugo Virrueta share a conversation about Hugo's experience writing for one national conference funding application, y muestran como systemic inequality limits who may participate in academic research.

Undergraduate Research and the Enrollment Crisis in English Literature

Declines in undergraduate enrollments in English literature are well documented, and departments need to develop a coherent set of productive, practical responses to enrollment pressures. Drawing on studies of undergraduate research in STEM disciplines, this article explores how undergraduate research experiences in English literature can be envisioned not as unique, one-on-one experiences for motivated and interested students but as a curricular intervention that spans the undergraduate academic experience, fosters scholarly identity, and promotes inclusivity in scholarly training. Rather than functioning “by arrangement,” undergraduate research in English should be a coordinated enterprise that is established as an expectation for incoming students and a feature of every level of the major.

Conducting Consequential Research

This article examines the value undergraduate research adds to writing centers in their role as anchor institutions within English and across college and university campuses. It focuses on a pilot project conducted by a team of mentored peer tutors who researched the accessibility of writing at Marquette University. Their successes and failures show how, beyond research findings, undergraduate research experience can be consequential for practitioners and their communities.

Guiding the Next Step

This article examines the mentorship gap students face between the completion of a manuscript and its subsequent submission to a journal. Without continued faculty support, students often face unexpected hurdles as they enter the publication process. To alleviate these issues, the article discusses the value of extending undergraduate research mentorship.

A Lesson in Ethics

This article presents a mentor and student's journey into the world of undergraduate scholarly publication discover a number of unexpected ethical conundrums. The student builds her authority by leaning into her own expertise as a writer and owner of her own work. As the publishing site becomes a site of manipulation, she responds with her growing sense of the ethics of writing for the public. She gains authority in ways that few undergraduate writers can through her decision making.

Formalizing Curiosity

Faculty and students in English and other humanities disciplines engage in undergraduate research and scholarship. Administrative support ensures institutional practices, policies such as those focused on tenure and promotion, and rewards are in place to encourage students as scholars, mentored by faculty. Such administrative leadership demonstrates an inclusive recognition that all disciplines engage in undergraduate scholarship; contributes to recruitment and retention efforts; positively impacts on student learning; and effectively promotes the institution, faculty, and students.