First Year Composition Programs Worth Investigating

In order to get a good historic view on first-year composition, check out, read the following online essay:

You might need to access this article from on campus, or even by first going through the NDSU Library, because our library subscribes to the "Project Muse" database.

Some of the following programs are well-known nation-wide because their Directors have written about their innovative approaches, or in the case of the University of Texas, they found themselves at the center of a national controversy. Compare these programs to the qualities that Spear describes in her essay, and compare these programs to NDSU’s program.

The web site describes the program’s philosophies and some of its assignments. Richard E. Miller, the Assistant Director, has written about the program in "A Writing Program's Assets Reconsidered: Getting beyond Impassioned Teachers and Enslaved Workers." http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pedagogy/v001/1.2miller.html

Their first year program created a tremendous controversy in the early 1990s because it chose as topical focuses race and gender. Essays by Linda Brodkey in Writing in Designated Areas Only provide good accounts of the controversy from the Writing Director at that time, and Situating College English is a collection of essays by a number of people who worked at Texas during the controversial time. An interesting "as it was happening" perspective can be found on an archived email list: http://lists.village.virginia.edu/lists_archive/Humanist/v04/

Anthony Ellertson, a graduate of NDSU, is working on developing web materials for teaching "visual communication" in first-year English. He is also teaching in what Iowa State calls its "Learning Team" approach–all of his first-year students are computer science students, and he is using readings related to technology and society. He’d love to exchange emails with some of you (although he is very busy). aellerts@iastate.edu

This is where first-year composition began, in 1872, but their current approach to composition is significantly different from the general national approach. Harvard is also closely studying the writing that their students do throughout their college career. The study is being wrapped up now, but here is an interesting tidbit: "One of Sommers's [lead researcher] most surprising findings is how much Harvard freshmen write--an average of thirteen papers for the year, with some students logging as many as twenty-four. A full 25% of students polled wrote between sixteen and twenty-two papers in their first year. One student, a joint concentrator in Women's Studies and Government, is typical: in her first year, she wrote fourteen papers, eight response papers, and a play" (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~expos/study.html).

Like at NDSU, students are required to take writing courses in order to meet a General Education requirement, but SUNY students can choose from a range of Writing Intensive courses, and must take one such course during their first-two years, and another such course during their final two-years (or whatever would be the equivalent of their junior or senior years). Lil Brannon has written about SUNY’s approach in "(Dis)Missing Compulsory First-year Composition," Reconceiving Writing, Rethinking Writing Instruction (239-48).

The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg: http://www.umanitoba.ca/student/u1/prospective/prospective_faq.html

Students who go to the University of Manitoba have to take one Writing-Intensive course in order to meet a "literacy" competency for graduation. That Writing-Intensive course may or may not be in the English department. Look for the FAQ "What is the University "literacy and numeracy" requirement? What is the significance of 'M' and 'W'?" at the URL listed.

Trudi E. Jacobson Beth L. Mark. "Separating Wheat from Chaff: Helping First-Year Students Become Information Savvy." Journal of General Education.

Ernest T. Pascarella and Patrick T. Terenzini. "Studying College Students in the 21st Century: Meeting New Challenges." The Review of Higher Education 21.2 (1998) 151-165