Taking the Long View

This article discusses how the concept of undergraduate research has evolved from an artificial academic exercise, typically introduced in first-year composition courses, to an authentic activity that engages students in primary research. Through these authentic experiences, students have opportunities to learn why research is valued in colleges and universities, to see themselves as makers of knowledge, and often to contribute to their communities.

Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback in First-Year Composition: Accuracy and Lexical and Syntactic Complexity

First-year composition courses must balance a range of writing instruction priorities including genre and audience awareness with language instruction, particularly for second-language writers. Despite the attested efficacy of dynamic written corrective feedback for language gains in intensive English programs, little research has investigated dynamic written corrective feedback in supporting language and discourse development among L2 first-year composition students. In the present study, pre- and post-test writing from 63 second-language first-year composition writers was analyzed for grammatical accuracy as well as lexical and syntactic complexity. Writers with dynamic written corrective feedback intervention ( n = 30) failed to outperform a control group on nearly all measures, and in fact made significantly more verb errors and demonstrated significantly less syntactic complexity over time compared to the control group. Results suggest that while dynamic written corrective feedback is efficacious in some settings, it may be at cross purposes with other first-year composition discourse-based goals such as genre and audience awareness.

Writing Motivation of College Students in Basic Writing and First-Year Composition Classes: Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Scales on Goals, Self-Efficacy, Beliefs, and Affect

The purpose of the study was to validate a writing motivation questionnaire that consists of four scales for first-year college writers including students with low writing skills in basic writing classes and students in typical first-year composition (FYC), to investigate differences between these two groups and to examine the relationship of motivational constructs with writing quality. Participants were 371 college students (142 in basic writing classes and 229 in FYC). Students completed a 49-item motivation questionnaire with scales for goal-orientation, self-efficacy, beliefs, and affect about writing and wrote an argumentative essay. Confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for the structural construct validity of all scales for both groups. Statistically significant differences between basic writers and FYC students were found on self-efficacy for grammar and strategies and on beliefs about the importance of substance and mechanics. Structural equation modeling found statistically significant positive relationships of essay quality with all three self-efficacy scales and belief about the importance of substance to good writing, as well as negative relationships with avoidance goal orientation and belief in the importance of mechanics. Limitations and implications for motivation and instruction of basic writing students and of adults with learning disabilities are discussed.

Exploring the Diversity of Everyday Experiences through the Humans of the University of Wisconsin-Stout Facebook Assignment

In this personal essay and research article mash-up genre, I reflect on my Humans of the University of Wisconsin-Stout first-year composition Facebook assignment, which was developed to teach my predominately white students about the diversity of everyday experiences. I share with readers how my positionality, as a former evangelical Christian Republican who left Christianity and became a liberal progressive a few years before this assignment, and the context of my university, a predominately white, midwestern polytechnic university, shaped my assignment design. I include Humans of UW-Stout Facebook stories, corresponding student reflections and homework, and my own personal reflection on the curriculum to empower instructors to teach diversity-focused FYC assignments and to inspire instructors to reflect upon how their own political and religious beliefs shape their curriculum.

A Survey of University Composition Education in Turkey

Composition Studies, is something that is often associated with universities in the United States, characterized by elements such as FYC (First-Year Composition), writing centres, advanced writing training for graduate students, and so forth. However, the composition is by no means limited to any one country, but research in its manifestation in other contexts is limited. That is the case for Turkey as well, a nation that possesses its own unique infrastructure of composition education, influenced by its own challenges and lived environment. In this paper, that infrastructure is analyzed with regard to its context, purpose, aims, and outcomes. It was found that that a framework of writing education exists in both public and private universities and is hand-in-hand with the English focus of certain educational programs. However, even up until the graduate level, there seem to be issues that draw attention to students' educational experience. The small-scale studies that have been done to date give clues (that often correspond with each other) on where the problems lie, specifically in need for more feedback, instruction in writing and mechanics, and so forth.