It has been twenty-seven years since a small group of faculty at the Community College of Baltimore County, faced with the discovery that two-thirds of students placed in our upper-level basic writing course never passed first year composition, began the development of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP), one of the earliest corequisite…

ENG 100 is a three-credit, graded course designed for students who are enrolled in ENG 110, a three-credit, single semester first year writing (FYW) course. Students in ENG 100 and 110 take six credits of FYW instruction during their first semester at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UWL). ENG 100 focuses on developing academic literacy…

This profile describes a new WPA's choice to work incrementally to assess an inherited, fledgling First-Year Writing curriculum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and change it over a three-year period with continual stakeholder involvement. The methods used for assessment were two rounds of instructor surveys and three rounds of direct…

This writing program profile examines the work of Dr. Linda Adler-Kassner and the ways in which she has redefined writing and the place of first-year writing at her university. The profile highlights Adler-Kassner's development of an "open systems" curriculum and her use of assessment for program visibility and continuous program…

English 1311: Expository English Composition is the first semester course in a two-semester first-year composition (FYC) sequence. Both ENG 1311 and its second-semester counterpart, ENG 1312, are required for all students unless they have transfer credit covering this requirement or place out of one or both of the courses via the College-Level…

Traces 25 years of freshman composition courses, highlighting "the expulsion of literature from the Garden of Composition,""the diluting of intellectual expectations and of the principles upon which programs were established," today's better management and writing teachers, and personal changes in instruction. Offers reflections on the future of…

Reviews the evolution of the required Freshman English course of the 1960s into the present college composition course offered in most institutions. Notes the focus on enabling students to master the skill of writing through emphasis on the writing process. Raises concerns, however, over the large number of adjunct and/or part-time faculty…

Despite the widespread acceptance of many kinds of nonliterary texts for first-year writing courses, primary scientific communication (PSC) remains largely absent. Objections to including PSC, especially that it is not rhetorically appropriate or sufficiently rich, do not hold. We argue for including PSC and give some practical suggestions for…

A field of study sequence designed at the University of Iowa to introduce the research paper to freshman rhetoric students encourages them to view themselves as interpretive anthropologists entering a strange culture and exploring their declared majors or areas of special interest. Each student is responsible for (1) writing an essay in response…

The enthusiasm generated by workshops in writing across the curriculum can be translated into lasting curricular change, particularly in freshman composition, general education courses, and upper-division writing emphasis courses. Committees, central to any change effort, can take any of a variety of forms. (MSE)

Responds to a call for proof of the effectiveness of the basic writing program at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, and documents a marked increase in the success rate of basic writers after the program had shifted from a traditional product centered course to a process course. (RS)

A study examined the types of writing courses currently offered by English departments at major universities, how they have changed over the last 10 years, and whether enrollments have increased or decreased during that period. The English departments at 198 institutions with graduate programs were surveyed; 105 usable responses were received (a…

One of the University of Minnesota's two writing tutorial programs, Composition 1013, constitutes the second quarter of freshman composition and is designed as an option for students with specialized writing needs, such as students of English as a Second Language (ESL). The course is perceived by students as remedial, and instructors do not feel…

This report presents a quantitative analysis of the educational outcomes associated with a three-year pilot project at the City College of New York (CCNY) to change the focus of the college's writing program from remediation to enrichment. The project substituted a two-semester nontracked, college-level writing sequence for two remedial courses…

A program at Rutgers University (New Jersey) to integrate information literacy into first-year composition courses involved librarians and faculty. The pilot project included two research seminars within each course. Evaluation of the project revealed a successful basic strategy, useful techniques and elements, and some areas for adaptation and…