Graduate students are rewarded with better job opportunities if they can demonstrate a productive publishing record. In this article we report on a writing program that generated technical publications in a discipline-based graduate class. Seventeen student authors were interviewed about the influence of the experience on their professional development. For many students the most powerful experience was working as a member of a research team. Master's students benefited from being able to transfer research experience into their thesis programs. Doctoral students stretched the definitions of their disciplines and learned new research methods. One cost of the research project was that less discipline-specific content was covered in the course. Overall, students improved soft skills through participation in the project.