A Successful Competency-Based Writing Skills Development Programme: Results of an Experiment1

Abstract

We describe a successful, semester-length writing skills development programme conducted at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) with intermediate level undergraduate financial accounting students. The programme focused on improving students' writing in five competency areas: organization, grammar, style, professional writing and case writing. Effectiveness was assessed by means of a quasi-experiment involving a pre-test, post-test design with a treatment group and a control group. Comparison of entry and exit test scores of students in the treatment group with those in the control group revealed a highly statistically significant increase in the writing skills of the treatment group. The programme outlined is not presented as a template for emulation, but rather to prompt educators to ponder how they might address the challenge of improving (and assessing) the writing skills of students.