For many students the first-year composition (FYC) classroom marks the beginning of college. The FYC instructor acts as a leader and a mentor for each student who is unique and approaches learning differently. The question is whether students enter the classroom prepared for the challenge of academic writing with a high sense of self-efficacy and…

Describes some of the thinking behind learning communities, how they have been defined, and considers why they can be effective. Suggests a direction that educators might go to rehabilitate the idea of learning communities because it represents something fundamentally good about human beings in their relations with one another. (SG)

Explains how faculty at Quinnipiac College reconceptualized developmental English and designed a new program that provides additional instructional time within the regular freshman English course. Finds that developmental students are better motivated and achieve growth in reading and writing commensurate with students who had a prior semester of…

A study designed a model for evaluating college writing programs by means of an analysis of the most important component, students. The study was conducted at the University of South Carolina Coastal Carolina College and involved first-year students. Subjects, six students who scored one (on a scale from one to four) on the holistically scored…

Updates an earlier report to underscore the inadvisability of imposing large sections of freshman composition students on reluctant departments and to promote further discussion of the issues raised by the program. Discusses some of the more controversial implications raised by the program. (RS)

This paper describes the First Year Program at Westminster College in Pennsylvania, which has implemented a new, progressive curriculum that prominently features the basic communication course, and an initial attempt to evaluate the program. The paper begins with a description of the content and goals of the basic communication course, which is…

Discusses principles about writing instruction that emerged from mainstreaming basic writers in first-year composition at California State University, Chico: (1) students learn college writing by being in the context of college writing, not some other context; and (2) literacy learning does not come in discreet levels. Describes how writers in…

Evaluation of freshman English programs is a process involving recursive steps, such as planning which elements to review, securing resources to carry out the review, actually reviewing the planned elements, and providing written reports to decision-makers. The four elements of an educational program--contexts, input, process, and product--cohere…