There is an increased emphasis on writing in today's undergraduate curriculum, and papers can play an important role in an introductory statistics course. With the existence of good interactive statistical software it is possible to move the classic introductory statistics course away from the study of formulas to the study of statistical thinking and the role of statistics in society. In such a new course students get an increased understanding of statistical ideas by writing papers across a wide range of topics; actual topics having ranged from a comparison of statistics and religion to a study of the relationship between time of first class in the morning and the distance from the bed to the alarm clock.
