A New Approach to Freshman Composition: A Trial of the Christensen Method

Abstract

THE TEACHING OF COMPOSITION is one of the major undertakings of our schools. In time and money expended, it outranks many a large business enterprise. And yet we who teach composition have almost no tested knowledge of how to go about the job; and the results of our efforts, insofar as they have been tested, seem to be almost negligible. We go through the motions, but the motions produce little in the way of results. Thus begins Dr. Francis Christensen in his introduction to The Christensen Rhetoric Program (Harper & Row, 1968, p. v). Since the publication of Dr. Christensen's article A Generative Rhetoric of the Sentence several years ago, I have adopted many of his suggestions in my college freshman composition classes with what I believe to be moderate success. However, until recently I had had no opportunity to test his theories and practices on a scientific basis. I believed that I was obtaining results, but there was no way of statistically substantiating my belief. During the winter quarter of 1969-70 I was assigned two sections of English 102 (the second quarter of a three-quarter freshman course in English), each section consisting of approximately the same number of students. Administrative approval was granted to set up a control group and a corresponding experimental group to test the effectiveness of the Christensen program against the traditional methods then being employed. The control group, consisting initially of 31 students, met three times each week for 11 weeks and was given instructions as outlined in the departmental syllabus. The students in this class studied a grammar handbook and worked