Student Transfer of General Education English Skills to a Social Work Diversity Course: Is It Happening‪?‬

ABSTRACT Undergraduate social work students (N = 21) at a mid-sized western U.S. teaching institution apparently did not significantly transfer skills learned in general English composition courses to writing assignments required in a social work writing-intensive, general education diversity course. Students' final grades from their general education composition courses (English 1010 and 2010) were compared to grades given to their social work papers by an English professor using a rubric developed to measure the ten composition goals of the general education writing competency. Despite a rubric and extensive written feedback from the social work professor on each of seven papers, students showed no improvement in their writing from the first paper to the seventh. Results indicated a failure of English skill transfer to a social work diversity course.