Composition History- Blog for Week 2 Readings

Composition History
The assigned readings for this consisted of a variety of topics. However, the main focus was the evolution of composition studies, specifically at the college freshman level. The article Writing Into the 21st Century, lists some specific research questions within the study that I feel represent the crux of the development of composition studies. Some of these questions include the following: What are the general problems being investigated by contemporary writing researchers? Which of the various problems dominate recent writing research, and which are not as prominent? What population age groups are prominent in recent writing research? What is the relationship between population age groups and problems under investigation? and What methodologies are being used in research on writing? Although researchers address various questions, the same questions is no doubt being addressed “what are the current trends in research on writing?”

Composition studies at the college level were a response to the “crisis” of the 1970’s. Because many universities at the time adopted open enrollment, many of the universities discovered the decline in academic success rates. The conversation on what the nature of the composition course should look like took on many avenues; however, in regards to relying on the research to define what the composition course should look like needed to rely on a solid theoretical framework, which at the time, was non-existent. What developed were four main schools of thought that entailed the writer, reality, audience and language. The main focus for developing composition studies included fostering thinking and creativity through the written word. So, why composition studies? Due to the open enrollment newly adopted at the universities, there was a need to distinguish between the better students and the good students. Thus, colleges allowed for the emergence of composition courses through the English department. During the 1980’s, new empirical based methods combined with theoretical conceptions and thus refined composition studies. Refereed journals became more prominent as the need for composition studies research evolved. Composition was treated as a completely separate entity like literature, linguistics, and general writing.

The question is then raised, what sort of content was found within these traditional composition courses. During the formalist period in 1950, much of the composition content focused on the traditional five paragraph format. Oddly, it is much of what we see instructed in today’s classrooms at the high school level. However, as more research developed, there was a response to this formalist period by developing a New Critical premise: The focus was to read and analyze text, not just write. This new Structuralist movement shifted the focus from the overall product of writing to focusing more on the process of writing. This new focus was aimed at revising and drafting rather than just focus on the structured type of writing. Ideally, one can look at this movement as getting away from writing as being an individual task to a more social process. This movement resulted into more process than anything else. Writing was to be looked at as an act that added to society and to bodies of knowledge and literature.

One other factor that was touched upon was the cognitive to the socio-cognitive. I find this to still be true of today’s composition students. The way students approach writing ultimately affects the way they construct their writing. It seems there will always be the stigma of the perception about writing will determine their process and overall product of their composition. With this being said, the natural question, then, is what should be taught in the English composition courses. Now that we are in the 21st century, it would seem that composition instruction and curriculum should have evolved from the formalist era. However, many researchers have found that not much has changed in composition instruction. Many of the composition courses include the same components or tenets that of high school curriculum. Students are generally required to write an essay, they are introduced and drilled on grammar, and they generally read some literature that provides an example of the types of writings in which they should be modeling. It is argued that the intellectual level in which composition is taught is relatively low. Standards are typically lowered because the thought is that students needing composition instruction at the freshman level need more assistance, especially with the open enrollment colleges and universities. Composition courses, according to researchers, should be a bit more rigorous, but specific initiatives should be taken in order for this to happen. Kitzhaber suggests that two main changes occur: 1) Help high schools in with the teaching of composition. This could take place through better teacher education and refine curriculum. 2) Completely restructure English composition programs at the college level.

The 21st century brings on many resources, specifically technological resources, which could be used to restructure the way composition instruction is practiced. Yancey suggest that different mediums be used for making writing real to students through “circulation.” Yancey states “As they movie from medium to medium, they consider what they move forward, what they leave out, what they add, and for each of these write a reflection in which they consider how the medium itself shapes what they create. (p 314) A shift and change in composition instruction is essentially the theme across the readings. Like anything else there is a history, but it is important to understand that time and context change and it is necessary for things to adapt. In this case, the need to adapt and utilize tools to make this change occur is something that definitely needs to occur.