Re-Imagining Composition Courses In
Light of Best Research-Based Practices
Elizabeth Wardle
Director of Composition
Associate Chair for Writing Outreach Programs
Dept of Writing and Rhetoric
University of Central Florida
ewardle@ucf.edu
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Questions for You
 How satisfied are you with your students’ writing abilities?
 How many writing or writing intensive courses are students
at your school required to take?
 Do students at your institution write regularly in many of
their college courses, with some opportunities for revision
and feedback?
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Today’s Talk
 Why writing instruction seems to be failing our students
 How we can do better
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Why Can’t Students Write?
 The Harvard origins of first-year composition
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
The “Writing Paradigm that Fails Us”
Assumes:
 That one course “fixes all”
 That writing is a “basic skill”
 That writing can be taught by anyone, even by people who don’t
want to teach it, aren’t qualified to teach it, and don’t get paid a
living wage to teach it
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
What Would Work Better?
 Some common sense questions:
 How do you learn to write well?
 How do you learn to do anything well?
 How do you learn to write something new?
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
We Don’t Design Writing Curricula and
Structures Based on What We Know to
be True About Writing
 If producing effective student writers for the complexities of
the 21st century is a priority
 Then we need to treat writing like a priority
 And create more effective writing structures and courses
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Questions for You
 If you are an upper administrator, consider the last time you
spoke at length with a composition teacher or the director of
the writing program?
 If you are a writing faculty member, when was the last time
you spoke at length with an upper administrator about your
teaching and your program?
 If you are a faculty member from another department, when
was the last time that you spoke with a writing faculty
member in an engaged way about student writing in your
own course and left with ideas for how to improve it?
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
II. In Search of a New Paradigm for
Writing Instruction
 Collaborative changes at UCF
 The initial pilot project
 Assessing the president’s pilot investment
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Assessment Results
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p value
Cronbach’s Alpha
2.48
Traditional 25
Mean
2.37
0.0255
0.8563
2.88
2.65
2.68
0.2276
0.8620
Rhetorically
analyze
Consider idea
3.01
2.42
1.12
0.0001
0.8577
3.04
2.61
2.66
0.0047
0.8588
Reflective
3.07
2.71
0.52
0.0001
0.8640
In-text citation
2.64
2.49
2.13
0.0255
0.8591
Work cited
2.46
2.33
2.08
0.1713
0.8616
Outside sources
2.96
2.73
2.34
0.0004
0.8512
Two plus sources
2.97
2.85
2.04
0.0001
0.8665
Feedback
3.77
3.75
3.15
0.0001
0.8751
Macro revision
2.07
2.07
1.52
0.0032
0.8679
Micro revision
2.63
2.58
2.12
0.0160
0.8646
New 19 Mean
New 25 Mean
Thinking
2.74
Polish
Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
The New Research-Based Model of
Writing Instruction
 Tenured or tenure track writing scholars to innovate best
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practices
Stable labor model for first-year composition & rigorous
composition curriculum (Entry point)
Writing across the curriculum (Continued experience)
Writing center (Support for students)
Writing minor, certificate, major; graduate writing
certificate; MA in Rhetoric & Composition (Opportunities for
intensive study)
Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
What Should Composition Courses
Do—And Why Is That So Hard?
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“Common Sense” View of Writing
What Research Tells Us about Writing
Students just need to learn “the basics;” you
can teach them “to write” once and for all.
Composing is a complex activity that occurs
differently in different contexts.
Consequently, a single class can’t teach
students to write once and for all, in all
situations, because genres and conventions
vary from community to community and
context to context.
When we teach students rules, they should
easily be able to use them no matter what
they are writing.
Composing effectively in new situations
requires a complex repurposing of previous
knowledge and experience. In order to
successfully use what they already know in a
new situation, students need meta-awareness
and faculty need to create affordances for
transfer.
Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
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“Common Sense” View of Writing
What Research Tells Us About Writing
The English teacher teaches students “to
write,” and the other teachers teach students
“the content.”
Composing successfully entails expertise in
both form and content; form and content are
inseparable. Trying to teach through
acontextual “skill and drill” or by instilling
general rules about form can actually harm
student writing later.
Teaching writing is just teaching a set of
“how tos” (procedural knowledge)
Composing involves both declarative and
procedural knowledge. Teaching writing is not
just about “how to” but also about how
writing works and how it’s learned and how
it varies from place to place.
Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
First-Year Composition Courses Have
Been…
 teaching out of the “common sense” view of writing, not out
of research-based best practices
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
First-Year Composition Courses Should
Be…
 Teaching both procedural (how to) and declarative (about)
writing knowledge to encourage transfer and rhetorical
dexterity
 Teaching meta-awareness and reflection about writing to
encourage transfer
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Why Can’t Composition Courses Just
Start Teaching From the Research?
Very often, composition teachers do not have the disciplinary
expertise in writing studies to teach writing most effectively
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
To Help Composition Faculty Teach
From the Research We Must…
 Treat adjuncts like professionals.
 Change faculty attitudes about writing scholarship
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Informing Composition with Research
at UCF Entailed:
 Removing the composition program from English
 Replacing 33 adjuncts with 18 full-time, non-tenure track
faculty over 4 years
 Expecting all 11 tenured/tenure track writing scholars to
teach composition and engage in discussions of research with
the non-tenure track instructors
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Protecting the Money for Writing
Instruction
 President Hitt designated the new funding so that it could
not be re-appropriated by the English Department or our
College for other purposes.
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Questions for You
 What is your writing process like?
 How much time do you spend writing, what kind of
resources do you use, how many revisions do you do?
 What “trusted readers” give you feedback?
Talk with your group and compare notes on this. Consider
the writing contexts we give to many of our students: timed
writing tests, or two weeks to write a research paper. How
do these contexts and subsequent processes compare with
your own?
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Composition Understood Differently:
Writing-about-Writing
The guiding assumption:
Since we can’t teach students exactly how to write
everything they will ever need to write (since conventions
vary), we should teach them how to learn about how to write.
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Composition Understood Differently:
Writing-about-Writing
The Content:
 Texts/Constructs: How Do Readers Read and Writers
Write?
 Writing Processes: How Do You Write?
 Literacies: How Have You Become the reader and Writer You
are Today?
 Discourses: How Do Communities Shape Writing?
 Authority: How Do You Make Yourself Heard as a College
Writer?
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
What Writing-about- Writing
Composition Courses Assume
 Students have to write differently in different writing
situations
 Expertise in a particular genre and context is only gained
within that context
 If students understand how writing works, how they and
others go about writing, and what questions to ask when they
encounter a new writing situation, they are more likely to
succeed.
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
What Writing-about-Writing Courses
Require of Composition Faculty
 Becoming familiar with writing research and best practices
 Constantly re-evaluating the effectiveness of their teaching
content and practices
 Participating in teacher training first and then in ongoing
professional development
 We are making our teacher training publicly accessible through
the Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant
 6-week training plus resource site on BB’s free CourseSites
 Interested? Email me: ewardle@ucf.edu
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
What Writing-about-Writing Assumes
About the Rest of the Curriculum
 More writing is to come in students’ college careers
 Faculty in those subsequent courses have the support they
need to assign, respond to, and assess that writing
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
In Conclusion:
The Solution to the Writing Problem
 Invest in writing teachers and writing curricula
 Expect all faculty to share in the responsibilities for helping
students write
 Support both teachers and students in their writing efforts
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
10 Questions To Ask On Your Own
Campus
AboutYour First-Year Composition Program
 Where is the composition program housed and why is it housed there?
 What are the qualifications of those who run the writing program, what expertise do they have in Composition
and Rhetoric, and what is their typical rank?
 Who does the composition program serve? Whose graduate students does it support, for whom does it produce
student credit hours, are resources returned to it in appropriate amounts given its credit hour production and
role in the GEP?
 Who staffs most of the composition courses? What is their expertise in writing? What are they paid? How often
does the staff change? What professional development is offered to them?
 What institutional incentives are there for writing specialists to spend time working with faculty across the
curriculum on issues related to student writing?
 How is writing assessed?
About Student Writing Across the Curriculum
 What are the desired outcomes for student writing on your campus? What evidence do you have that these
outcomes are being achieved?
 What organized opportunities do students have to write regularly throughout their career college or university?
 What institutional incentives are there for faculty from all disciplines to include writing in their courses?
 What support do faculty from all disciplines have when they want to assign and assess student writing in their
courses?
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Resources to Help You

Council of Writing Program Administrators (http://wpacouncil.org/)
 Consultant-Evaluator Service
 Writing Assessment Resources
 Journal

Comppile (http://comppile.org/)
 Searchable database of composition-related research
 Research bibliographies on common topics in writing instruction and administration
 CompFAQs—discussions of common questions related to writing instruction and administration

UCF’s Department ofWriting and Rhetoric (http://writingandrhetoric.cah.ucf.edu/)

Writing aboutWriting Composition Courses
 Wardle, Elizabeth and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Bedford/St Martin’s, 2010.
 Writing about Writing teacher training and resource site on Blackboard’s CourseSites. Funded by the
Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant. For access, email Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu
Questions & Discussion?
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Elizabeth Wardle ewardle@ucf.edu