Developing a language for students and teachers to discuss good writing

div Composition research consistently demonstrates that the social context of writing determines the majority of conventions any writer must observe. Still, most universities organize the required first-year composition course as if there were an intuitive set of general writing "skills" usable across academic and work-world settings. In College Writing and Beyond: A New Framework for University Writing Instruction, Anne Beaufort reports on a longitudinal study comparing one student’s experience in FYC, in history, in engineering,;

Writing for College and Beyond prepares students for their future college classes by covering the strategies common to most college writing. In the process of being prepared for college writing, however, students are also taught chapter by chapter how these writing skills will carry forward into their future professional lives beyond college. One of the least expensive first year writing textbooks on the market, the text isn't inflated with material that most instructors and students won't use, and several exercises encourage students to use either provided web or YouTube links as texts supporting their practice for longer assignments.If you're a first year writing instructor and would like to consider this text for your course, email the author at brightfuturespublishing (at) gmail (dot) com for a desk copy.

Offers teaching strategies and resources to instruct sixth- through twelfth-graders on how to prepare and write strong arguments and evaluate the arguments of others, providing step-by-step guidance on arguments of fact, judgment, and policy, and including advice to help students understand how judgments get made in the real world, how to develop and support criteria for an argument, and related topics.

Beyond Fitting In interrogates how the cultural capital and lived experiences of first-generation college students inform literacy studies and the writing-centered classroom. Essays, written by scholar-teachers in the field of rhetoric and composition, discuss best practices for teaching first-generation students in writing classrooms, centers, programs, and other environments. The collection considers how first-gen students of different demographics interact with and affect literacy instruction in a variety of public and private, rural and urban schools offering two- or four-year programs, including Hispanic-serving institutions, historically Black colleges and universities, and public research universities. By exploring the experiences of students, teachers, writing program administrators, and writing center directors, the volume gives readers an inside view of the practices and structures that shape the literacy of first-generation students.

Community colleges in the United States are the first point of entry for many students to a higher education, a career, and a new start. They continue to be a place of personal and, ultimately, societal transformation. And first-year composition courses have become sites of contestation. This volume is an inquiry into community college first-year pedagogy and policy at a time when change has not only been called for but also mandated by state lawmakers who financially control public education. It also acknowledges new policies that are eliminating developmental and remedial writing courses while keeping mind that, for most community college students, first-year composition serves as the last course they will take in the English department toward their associate’s degree. Chapters focusing on pedagogy and policy are integrated within cohesively themed parts: (1) refining pedagogy; (2) teaching toward acceleration; (3) considering programmatic change; and (4) exploring curriculum through research and policy. The volume concludes with the editors’ reflections regarding future work; a glossary and reflection questions are included. This volume also serves as a call to action to change the way community colleges attend to faculty concerns. Only by listening to teachers can the concerns discussed in the volume be addressed; it is the teachers who see how societal changes intersect with campus policies and students’ lives on a daily basis.

How can we prepare the work-force of tomorrow for the increasing writing demands of the Information Age? Anne Beaufort provides a multidimensional response to this critical question. Offering a vital view of the developmental process entailed in attaining writing fluency in school and beyond, and the conditions that contribute to acquiring such expertise, Beaufort illuminates what it takes to foster the versatility writers must possess in the workplace of the twenty-first century.