People interested in the field of Rhetoric and Composition are far more likely now than in the past to pursue a career in writing program administration (WPA). Preparation for this work can be both difficult to find and difficult to provide which is problematic for prospective graduate students and WPA professors alike. The purpose of this study…

This study argues for the importance of analyzing individual students' responses to writing instruction in crafting histories of the field of rhetoric and composition. I engage in an archival study of student writing at the University of Kansas during the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, specifically through a genre-based local…

This interdisciplinary study examines faculty members' various understandings of writing pedagogies across the curriculum to foster global citizens from the perspective of "soka," or value creation. Broadly, value-creating global citizenship pedagogy develops students' skills and knowledge for the purpose of socioecological good.…

Intended as a convenient and cost-efficient way for students to earn their first college credits while still in high school, dual-credit, or concurrent enrollment, is transforming many first-year writing (FYW) programs. Many institutions emphasize that dual-credit courses are the same as traditional college courses, yet "[dual-credit] tends…

Through a case study approach of a cohort of community college students at a single community college, the impact on success rates in composition courses was analyzed based on the sequence of completing an information literacy course. Two student cohorts were sampled based on completing an information literacy course prior to, or concurrently with…

Mutuality practice in the composition classroom attempts to create equal subject positions between teachers and students, mitigating the effects of dominant power structures inherent to an authority-driven classroom while showing teachers that their students are fully capable, though fledgling, members of an academic community. Understanding how…

This project focuses on the design of an online version of Purdue University's English 10600-I, First Year Composition for International Students course. In order to determine the curriculum design approach that would be most likely to lead to student success, a thorough investigation into all relevant aspects of distance education was conducted.…

This pilot study examines the new teaching assistant (TA) preparation programs used by Ohio universities, both public and private, that graduate students to staff first-year composition (FYC) classrooms. I collected information about the preparation programs and the components of preparation from in-house materials from each of the schools,…

This study yields a broader understanding of the "development of rhetorical instruction in the American college" (Gold 15) by focusing on the composition programs at two little studied universities. This dissertation addresses the descriptions of composition courses as these appear in the course catalogs of two different kinds of…