ENGL 358 Research Paper

8/10/2019 ENGL 358 Research Paper

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Celena Todora

ENGL 358

Dr. Salafia

26 November 2013

Repositioning Composition Courses into the Real World

First-year composition courses were first introduced at Harvard in the late nineteenth

century and eventually spread to numerous universities throughout the country (Crowley 4).

Today most universities in the United States, with the exception of some private universities,

require first year students to take a freshman composition course (1). Ever since its

establishment, the field of composition studies has been expanding, and numerous scholars have

been introducing different pedagogies to improve the field (3). Many composition scholars

discuss different approaches to teaching composition; however, within both the discussion of

improving composition courses and the implementation of these improvements into the

classroom, there has been little focus overall on developing students writing and awareness in

the context of their own fields, which is an undoubtedly significant experience that will benefit

them as they enter into the workforce. Based on my own experiences working as a writing tutor,

as well as my research on the topic, I have found that many writing assignments in general

composition courses consist of comparison and contrast papers, memoirs, narratives, and

character profiles. While these assignments effectively target numerous valuable skills, such as

the students abilities to write with specific details to strengthen their writing, use reasoning and

evidence to support their theses, cohesively organize a paper, and become familiar with different

citation styles, the work that the students produce is primarily solely useful within the specific

course and lacks significance outside this classroom. As the purpose of a university education is


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to prepare students for their future careers, a university class should ideally prepare students for

their future. Therefore, first-year composition instructors should allow students to develop vital

writing skills through more relevant assignments that will simultaneously teach them these skills

while preparing them for topics in their future by giving them the opportunity to write about a

topic in their own fields or in some significant, real-world context. Of course, not all freshmen

have determined their majors yet, but this will give them a chance to either explore a field that

they might be interested in or simply research an issue that is prevalent in our society. This will

not only expose students to topics that are circling our society, but writing about it will allow

them to feel value in their work, make contributions to academic conversations, and help them

understand the significance of the assignments that they are completing.

As mentioned previously, traditional freshmen composition assignments provide students

with valuable skills that are applicable to their future, but it is possible for instructors to create

assignments that target these skills through topics applicable to the students futures. In order to

gain a greater understanding of the skills that these traditional assignments develop, I

interviewed three freshman composition instructors at North Dakota State University. In order to

maintain anonymity for privacy purposes, I will refer to them as Carter, Smith, and Johnson.

Each instructor clearly explained the valuable skills that their students enhance through various

assignments, including the profile paper, rhetorical analysis, and the commentary. The profile

paper is a paper that the English Department at North Dakota State University suggests that

requires students to write about a person, usually either famous our in their lives, and prove

through the persons actions and values that they align to a particular dominant impression,

such as independent, determined, or other various character traits. Choosing a dominant

impression in this paper functions like a thesis, and the students are required to back up this


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thesis with evidence and provide a persuasive argument. Smith, one of the interviewed graduate

instructors, states that profiles are beneficial to students because they teach them the abilty to

find, use, and synthesize sources, if the student is writing about a famous person. She also

argues that the assignment helps teach transitions among paragraphs and practice utilizing a

thesis to connect ideas. While these skills are undoubtedly highly significant, a profile paper is

not particularly useful outside of the classroom; it is still possible to teach these skills through an

research paper on a particular topic in their field or a national or international issue, which will

not only educate them about significant issues in their field or the world, but it will give them the

possibly opportunity of creating a piece of work that can potentially be one day published and

integrated into academic or societal conversations. Often, if there is too much of a disconnect

between freshman composition assignments and writing practice that students will need to

experience in their future careers, they might have a difficult time applying the skills that hey

had learned. According to composition professors Kumar and Refaeis experience in their

university, as more programsbegan requiring capstone projects, faculty were finding

students unprepared to meet the expectations for the writing their capstone projects entailed.

Students were not applying what they had learned in their first-year writing courses to the new

writing expectations in the upper division courses (67). To avoid this disconnect, it is important

for instructors to make students aware of the importance of the skills that they are teaching

through assignments that give them practice with writing forms they may experience in the

future.

Of course, there are assignments in freshman composition classes that usually allow for

this, such as the rhetorical analysis; however, instructors should be careful not to limit students

too much so as not to make them lose interest in the assignment or fail to see its significance.


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Rhetorical analyses are fundamental assignments because in the process of writing them,

students are required to pay attention to the components that create an effective argument, which

will help them both improve their own writing and be aware of the credibility and effectiveness

of articles that they read. Carter, Smith, and Johnson each believe that this assignment helps

students develop critical thinking skills, practice integrating sources, and developing a thesis

statement. While these are crucial skills to teach students, it is still important to gain their

interest and help them understand the significance of what they are writing. Giving them the

opportunity to choose their own articles about something important in either their field or society

that interests them will allow students to develop these skills through a more engaging

assignment that they will have more of an affinity to what they are writing.

Memoirs, on the other hand, are assignments that do have some value in teaching writing skills,

such as giving students the opportunity to practice writing with specific details, but, again, this

assignment is not a genre that will appeal to every students interest, and not every student will

find it valuable outside the classroom; instead, it is possible to teach these skills through a

different outlet. Psychologist Sharon Hollander, who has done studies on the effects of using

memoirs in the classroom, concludes that memoirs promote quality reading and writing, inspire

original and insightful responses from students, and foster a sense of community in class

because of the emotional impact that they have on the reader (1). Undoubtedly, memoirs can

often be very powerful in helping students understand a certain aspect of culture and writing

memoirs can be a significant cultural contribution, but not all students will easily find inspiration

for this. Many instructors require students to write memoirs about a stereotype or hardship that

they have experienced, and not all students can relate to this. Ideally, a freshman composition

course should target writing that students will need to practice their entire lives, and not many


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students will need to write a memoir again for the rest of their lives. Composition courses would

prepare the students for their futures much more effectively if it exposed them to content in their

subject areas. Perhaps the in class readings can be more universal to foster this class community

that Hollander promotes, but a student will get more individual value out of an assignment if it is

something of interest or importance to him or her.

The students will gain numerous benefits from implementing assignments targeted at

real-world issues, including increased interest and pride in their papers, the ability to expand

academic and societal discussions, and exposure writing that they will use in their future. As for

interest in their work, students are more likely to enjoy working on paper that is of interest to

them or has a clear significance. Likewise, university composition instructor Adam Webb

supports this theory; as he discusses in his dissertation, One of the enduring obstacles for many

English and writing teachers within the public school sector and at the college level is creating

assignments and activities that allow their students the opportunity to have authentic experiences

where the learning and writing occur not only within a text but also in the real world (Webb 7).

In this statement, he implies that students will get more out of an assignment if it has real-world

significance, rather than simply analyzing a short story or poem. Of course, in literature courses,

analyzing a short story or poem is highly significant, but in a freshman composition class that

consists of students with a variety of majors, allowing them to write about a topic that is both of

interest to them and holds societal significance is more effective in grasping their attention and

motivation. One method of doing this is problem-based learning. Professor of Education John

Savery defines problem-based learning as an instructional (andcurricular) learner-centered

approach that empowers learners to conduct research, integrate theory and practice, and apply

knowledge and skills to develop a viable solution to a definedproblem(1). For example,


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students can focus on a problem in their own fields or society and determine concrete solutions

or strategies to solve this problem. Based on their experience with problem-based learning in

their classrooms, composition professors Kumar and Refaei assert that the use of teaching

interventions in the form of problem-based learning, can lead to increased quality in student

critical thinking among other skills such as improved independent thinking and metacognitive

skills (68). Problem-based learning has had success in composition classes previously,

especially in developing critical thinking skills, but it also helps engage the students if they

choose an issue that they care about. Another factor that makes it successful is if the students

can choose a real-life audience. Educationalist Lisa Delpit argues that While part of the writing

process is personal and comes from within, such as the visualization of an audience, even when

perceived clearly, is imaginary, whereas the act of communicating with an external audience is

social and collaborative in nature (32). Having the students choose an actual audience to write

to makes their assignment seem more real and important. Lisa further asserts that actual writing

for real audiences and real purposes is a vital element in helping students to understand that they

have an important voice in their own learning processes (33). Establishing a real audience helps

the students understand that what they are saying matters and can contribute to a conversation on

the issue they are writing about. Composition professor M. J. Braun advocates introducing

genres that actually circulate in various discourses (90). He asserts that it is important that

students will participate in the world of text by engaging with actually circulating discourses

and genres, not with a series of disconnected topics about which they write in pseudo-genres that

only exist in the composition classroom, such as the genres I have mentioned previously (100).

Giving students the opportunity to contribute to existing discussions allows them to feel value in

their work and experience the importance of writing in the real world.


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While numerous composition programs throughout the country use various assignments

to target critical thinking skills, thesis development, and other writing skills in the classroom,

there is often a disconnect between these assignments and writing that the students will be using

in their fields. Because the purpose of a university is to educate students to prepare them for

their future careers, it would be more effective if freshman composition instructors gave students

assignments targeted at developing writing skills through discussion of real-world issues in either

their field or the world, which would allow them to contribute to existing conversations, feel

value in their work, and prepare them for the topics and writing styles that they will be using in

the future. One method of doing this is problem-based learning, but there are also many other

options, such as having the students choose a topic to publish in a journal in their field or even

service learning, which gets students active in the community while simultaneously developing

the writing skills in the classroom. This, of course, would not negate the skills that freshman

composition classes currently teach, but teach them in a method that also prepares students for

the real world.


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Works Cited

Braun, M.J. The Prospects for Rhetoric in a First-Year Composition Program: Deliberative

Discourse as a Vehicle for Change. WPA Journal 31.3 (2008): 89-109.EBSCO. 10 Oct. 2013.

Carter, Katherine. Personal interview. 19 Nov. 2013.

Crowley, Sharon. Composition in the University: Historical and Polemical Essays. Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh University Press, 1998. Print.

Delpit, Lisa. Other Peoples Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom.New York: The

New Press, 1995. Print.

Hollander, Susan, K. Taking it Personally: The Role of Memoirs in Teacher Education.Electronic

Journal for Inclusive Education 1.5 (2001): Np. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.

Johnson, Victoria. Personal interview. 19 Nov. 2013.

Kumar, Rita and Brenda Refaei. Designing a Problem-Based Learning Intermediate


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Composition Course. College Teaching 61.2 (2013): 67-73.EBSCO. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.

Savery, John R. Overview of Problem-based Learning: Definitions and Distinctions.

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning 1.1 (2006): 1-20. Print.

Smith, Megan. Personal interview. 19 Nov. 2013.

Webb, Adam. Rhizomatic Literacies: Restructuring Pedagogy and Practice within the Freshmen

Composition Classroom. Diss. University of Texas A&M Corpus Christie, 2009.ERIC. Web.

19 Oct. 2013.

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ENGL 358 Research Paper