Across the drafts

Beginning in 1997, the Harvard Study of Undergraduate Writing followed 400 students from the Class of 2001 through their four years of college. Feedback emerged as the hero and anti-hero of the Harvard Study -- powerful enough to convince students they could or couldn't do the work in a given field, to push them toward or away from selecting their majors, and contributed, more than any other single factor, to their sense of academic belonging or alienation. In the 18-minute film Across the Drafts, students and faculty talk about the challenges and rewards of giving and receiving feedback. This DVD also contains Shaped by Writing, a 14-minute film in which 8 students who participated in the Harvard Study, along with their faculty, talk about the role of writing in an undergraduate education. Both Across the Drafts and Shaped by Writing are designed to be used as catalysts for further discussion in the classroom and in professional development workshops.