While social work educators have explored strategies to improve literacy development among their students, many educators continue to strive for a better integration of effective reading and writing skills. This article presents the findings of a survey that used qualitative research methods to assess the outcomes of a doctorate in social work program that employed a specialist in composition. Doctorate in social work students reported on the skill of ‘close reading’ as it related to their own writing, practice, university teaching, and field supervision. Data analysis reveals that these students had not previously learned the close reading skills necessary for strong writing skills. This article extends support for a full integration of close reading as a way to improve writing, clinical mental health practice, and critical thinking skills.

Greetings from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where a central part of our mission is to anticipate and create model classrooms and pedagogies that might inspire universities around the world as they reinvent themselves in the face of technological innovation. We have been particularly inspired by our colleague, Professor Richard Miller, who is at the forefront of research and practice on how digital technologies have come to bear on the future of education. In his article, “The Coming Apocalypse,” Miller (2010) explains that the “paradigm shift” occurring in higher education, once based solely on the scholarly production of copyrighted print documents, confronts the realm of resources and information open to us on the Web. He writes: