How First-Year Comp Can Save the World
How First-Year Comp Can Save the World
By Deborah L. Williams
January 2, 2020
Summary
At least once a semester, I have a conversation that goes something like this: a colleague looks at her students' essays and moans, "They just can't write." When I ask how much class time she spends talking about student writing, I'm told quite sharply that "There is way too much material to cover to spend time on that, so I just give them a handout. I mean, aren't they supposed to learn this stuff in first-year comp?".
Bad student writing will make you moan, but writing isn't as important as content coverage.
The mission statements gloss over the specifics of how, exactly, students are supposed to gain these mad skills, given that many students, particularly those majoring in STEM-related disciplines, might only have one semester of sustained writing instruction during their entire undergraduate career.
Composition courses have become academic piecework factories, only instead of being paid by the blouse, faculty members are paid by contact hour, with no compensation for time spent conferencing with students, reading and marking student writing, or preparing for class.
Instead of detailing the marginalization of writing programs I want to propose a thought experiment: What would happen if through some magic spell, first-year comp became the beating curricular heart of the university? What if what was best about composition teaching became the pedagogical default instead of the exception? What if we provided better pay for comp instructors, organized courses around different principles and asked students to slow down and reflect?
As Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt said in the 2018 presidential address at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the "Least prepared, least experienced and least supported instructors" often staff writing courses.
Contingent faculty, who are paid by the course and often not entitled to benefits of any sort, frequently teach composition courses.
Students do, of course, create a product - a finished essay - but before arriving at that moment, composition classes give students an unexpectedly powerful experience: they have to slow down.
In an effective writing class, students are asked to stop and reflect at every point in the writing process.
Consilient critical thinkers can resist the quick and snarky comments that score likes on Twitter, and they understand that "Critical thinking" doesn't mean "Criticize everything." The well-taught composition class teaches students that good questions move thinking forward rather than shut it down And it shows them the importance of the pause: the space between the first draft and the second, between snark and support, between negation and connection.
Reference
Williams, D. L. (2020, January 2). How First-Year Comp Can Save the World. Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/01/02/benefits-applying-best-aspects-composition-classes-higher-education-general-opinion.