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Composition studies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Composition Studies (also referred to as "Composition and Rhetoric," "College Composition," or simply "Composition") is the professional field of writing instruction, especially at the college level in the United States. In many American colleges and universities, undergraduate students must take freshman — sometimes even higher — composition courses. For example, in California, all public colleges and universities have 1A, freshman composition, and 1B, sophomore composition, requirements.
Many composition scholars study not only the theory and practice of postsecondary writing instruction, but also the influence of different writing conventions and genres on writers' composing processes. As written conventions and genres change over time, compositionists continue to learn how these changes affect writers, and how writers work to change the conventions within which they work.
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Many universities have a required freshman, or first-year, composition course. This is not always the same as a literature course, which focuses on literary analysis and interpretation; rather, composition courses are often intensive instruction in writing non-fiction, expository texts using academic discourse conventions. Writing curricula vary considerably from institution to institution. Pedagogies or approaches to teaching writing are grounded in a range of different traditions and philosophies.
Doctoral programs in Composition Studies are available at more than eighty universities. Such programs are commonly housed within English Studies or Education programs.
Second language writing is the practice of teaching writing to non-native speakers of English.
Because academic discourse is not monolithic, many compositionists have created a writing across the curriculum (WAC) movement that situates writing-intensive instruction in specific academic discourse communities.
Many colleges and universities have a writing center, which offers supplementary tutorial support for writing specifically in English classes and/or across the curriculum. Many universities in North America and especially elsewhere only offer writing instruction via writing centers.
- Berlin, James A. Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1987.
- Miller, Susan. Textual Carnivals: The Politics of Composition. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1991.
- North, Stephen. The Making of Knowledge in Composition Studies. Upper Montclair, N.J.: Boynton/Cook, 1987.
- Phelps, Louise Wetherbee. Composition as a Human Science. New York: Oxford UP, 1988.
- William Strunk, Jr., et al., The Classics of Style. The American Academic Press, 2006.