“Any Time, Any Place”: The Myth of Universal Access and the Semiprivate Space of Online Education

Analyzing Students’ Perceptions of Their Learning in Online and Hybrid First-Year Composition Courses

Many international students in American universities are required to take writing courses in English as a second language (ESL) before participating in a mainstream first-year composition (FYC) course. Given that the goal of ESL writing course is to prepare students for FYC course, the connection between ESL and FYC courses is significant. This study investigates the correspondence of two such courses in terms of writing tasks based on the analysis of course syllabi, assignment sheets, and interviews with eight ESL course and 10 FYC instructors as well as 26 international students who are from diverse countries and took both composition courses. The findings suggest that students’ assignments from both courses are all essays in terms of genre, but show differences with regard to the text’s purpose, audience, information source, topic, and rhetorical function. Students are also aware of such similarities and differences, but occasionally demonstrate less sophisticated or inaccurate understanding of the assignments. Pedagogical implications for modifying the writing assignments in ESL courses to fit the expectations of FYC courses are discussed.

In response to the rapidly growing number of international and multilingual students on U.S. college campuses, many colleges’ first year composition (FYC) courses have expanded to include classes designated for “ESL” or “International” students, with increasing scholarship on the best pedagogical practices for such classes. Despite increasing scholarship on the best pedagogical practices for such classes, the implications of placing students into them remains “the thorniest of issues” (Crusan, 2011), with mounting debate as to how to measure L2 students’ suitability for either “ESL” or “mainstream” writing classes, as well as the role students should play in labelling themselves “ESL” writers. Directed Self-Placement (DSP) is emerging as a more equitable and anti-racist alternative to test-based placement; however, there are concerns about its suitability for L2 writers specifically (Crusan, 2011; Ferris, 2017). This literature review therefore aims to address two questions: (1) what are the unique challenges of placing L2 writers in FYC courses? Specifically, what are the implications of the identity labelling inherent in placing L2 students in courses designated as “ESL” or for “International Students” with regard to student investment and learning outcomes? (2) Might DSP offer a viable alternative to traditional L2 placement testing that addresses such implications?

Instructors of First-Year Composition courses are pursuing new ways to help integrate students into collegiate writing. One approach that has been gaining more widespread use is teaching composition through a popular medium. Inspired by these pedagogical movements, I designed a first-year composition course that approached writing through looking at different rhetorical elements of video games. During the course I encouraged students to enter into an I.R.B. approved study in which I recorded certain elements of their progression, discourse, and understanding regarding composition taught through gaming in an effort to document what was pedagogically successful, and what aspects of the course I could go on to change in further renditions. This approach is not a new one, but I wanted to help validate the argument for teaching composition through something students not only had prior knowledge of, but deeply wanted to discuss. My hope is that this study will help future students of first-year composition courses by encouraging their instructors to think critically about their own pedagogy, and help meet students where they begin their collegiate writing journey.

Students in first-year composition (FYC) courses are expected to control the mechanics, vocabulary, style, and grammatical accuracy of their writing. Yet language development support, particularly that of grammar instruction in US FYC courses, has largely disappeared in recent decades, due in part to suppositions that students implicitly know grammar. This assumption is problematic given the increasing number of multilingual writers enrolling in US schools with observed needs for explicit language instruction. The present study explores whether first- and second-language writers of English perceived a need for language instruction and whether they wanted or expected it. Students from 12 sections of FYC were asked in surveys and interviews about their prior language learning experiences and current self-perceived language needs and then were asked to complete one of two self-directed language development projects (LDPs): an online, self-selected grammar and usage study project or journal entries focusing on vocabulary/style in texts they had read. Student work was collected, analyzed, and supplemented with students’ end-of-term observations and preferences about self-directed LDPs. Our findings reveal that students overwhelmingly wanted and expected language instruction and were largely positive about both types of LDPs, but they felt that language instruction should be offered in multiple delivery methods beyond just self-study. With these findings in mind, we offer pedagogical suggestions for addressing the perceived and real needs for language development of linguistically diverse FYC students.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in higher education face challenges in developing critical reading and academic writing skills in English-medium instruction (EMI) environments. The study investigated the effectiveness of integrating critical reading blended online learning modules to support the development of EFL first-year college students’ academic writing skills. This was a semester-long pedagogical action research study conducted at a leading federal university in the UAE across four first-year composition courses. The study involved designing and implementing online blended modules integrated within the content of a first-year composition course, either as classroom activities or additional supplementary practice for students. Data collection included student interviews, written artifacts, reflections, and an instructor’s reflective diary. Qualitative findings indicated that integrating critical reading instruction through online blended modules supported the development of students’ academic writing skills in L2 college composition courses within an EMI environment. Utilizing instructional technology and online blended learning enhanced the students’ learning experience and promoted their critical reading abilities. The study offers several pedagogical implications for L2 composition instruction in English-medium higher education, emphasizing the importance of incorporating critical reading into EFL composition course design, maximizing learning through reading-writing connections and reflective practice, and maintaining accurate learner profiles regarding critical reading abilities. These factors could contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the pedagogical approaches necessary for effective composition instruction.

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On a typical day at the University of Nevada, Reno Writing Center, students come to get help on papers for classes such as Management 321, English 401, Biology 102, History 387, Women’s Studies 450, and Business Administration 772. Students seek help on resumes and personal statements for graduate school applications. And, of course, students from our first-year composition classes–English 098, 101, and 102–are always well represented. We tutor students from all over campus, from every discipline, and from every level of instruction, from basic–or “developmental”–writing students in English 098 to people working on doctoral dissertations. It truly is a writing center focused on helping writing across the curriculum, not just students in first-year composition courses or a handful of writing-intensive courses. In fact, in an average year, our writing center tutors between 5,000 and 6,000 students, from about 300 different classes, representing every major on campus. About 46 percent of the students who utilize the UNR Writing Center are there for first-year composition courses, and about 12 percent are graduate students, with the remaining clients coming from a variety of 200-, 300-, and 400-level courses. It’s also worth noting here that these students generally leave the UNR Writing Center satisfied. Post-tutoring session surveys that we conduct always reveal that more than 90 percent of students who visit the UNR Writing Center say that the tutors they worked with either met or exceeded their expectations.

Recently, scholars in rhetoric and composition (e.g., Bruce McComiskey) have argued that their field has a key role to play in schools’ efforts to fight fake news. This field already engages with questions of how communicators build credibility and persuade audiences, and of how first-year writing courses (which many rhetoric and composition scholars teach) already often focus on skills like source evaluation and critical thinking. Thus, scholars like McComiskey have argued that rhetoric and composition can and should exert an influence on universities’ civic education efforts in the 21st century. However, despite an uptick in scholarly interest in fake news, empirical study of whether first-year writing courses impart civic skills is scarce.An exploratory study examined whether students who take first-year composition courses experience any growth in Civic Online Reasoning (COR) when those courses’ learning outcomes invoke the notions of critical thinking, source evaluation, and digital literacy. It also investigated whether students’ COR gains differed between course sections and identified curricular features that might contribute to those differences. COR assessments developed by the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) were administered to students before and after completing a first-year writing course. Participating instructors’ course documents (syllabi and major assignment sheets) were also analyzed via a qualitative coding procedure. Students’ scores for the COR component skills of Ad Identification and Lateral Reading increased significantly after one semester of first-year composition instruction. However, students’ scores for the Claim Research and Evidence Analysis skills did not improve. Moreover, no significant differences were observed between sections. These results suggested the possibility that, even absent explicit COR instruction, first-year composition courses can impart some COR skill gains, but that the particular approach the instructor uses does not matter much. However, several methodological problems prevented the study from offering firmer conclusions. In addition to making a case for additional research, this dissertation argues that if scholars in rhetoric and composition wish to have a hand in defining universities’ approaches to civic education in the future, they should strive to generate robust, generalizable evidence of the benefits of their courses. This will require them to embrace empirical and quantitative methodologies and to engage with work in other fields more frequently.

While longitudinal research within the field of writing studies has contributed to our understanding of postsecondary students’ writing development, there has been less attention given to the discursive resources students bring with them into writing classrooms and how they make use of these resources in first-year composition courses. This article reports findings from a cross-institutional research study that examines how students access and make use of prior genre knowledge when they encounter new writing tasks in first-year composition courses. Findings reveal a range of ways student make use of prior genre knowledge, with some students breaking down their genre knowledge into useful strategies and repurposing it, and with others maintaining known genres regardless of task.

This paper describes the development, pilot offering and initial assessment of a first year composition course, Essentials of College Rhetoric, specifically designed to provide students entering engineering programs at Texas Tech University (USA) with the critical reading and writing skills and rhetorical strategies traditionally taught in first year composition. However, this course differs from traditional composition courses in that it shares curriculum and assignments with the introductory electrical engineering course, Introduction to Engineering and Computer Programming, and not only underscores the role of engineers as writers in the workplace by teaching documentation conventions common to engineering practice, but also requires students to think and write critically about ethical, political, and other issues that shape the role of engineering in our culture.


 This study offers insights on developing poetry writing assignment in first-year composition courses for translingual orientation. Through a close examination of semi-structured interviews and students’ poems, the study aims to evaluatethe effectiveness of the teaching of poetry writing as translingual pedagogy in college English composition courses for both monolingual and multilingual students. Five monolingual and five multilingual students in this project experienced a three-week curriculum design to compose their poetry project in two different sections. The interview data shows that both monolingual and multilingual students acknowledge positive traits about the translingual pedagogy through a poetry writing assignment toward the end of the semester. The data also demonstrates that five monolingual students in this study value this poetry writing assignment with its invitation for being free and self-expressive, while the five multilingual students stress the practical outcomes, such as a personal breakthrough, poetry book as a concrete record of their life, or negotiation experiences. Furthermore, the study provides implications for developing curriculum design to enact translingual pedagogy based on students’ perceived difficulties and struggles. 

This study examines the effects of a curriculum based on self-regulated strategy instruction in an accelerated developmental education (DE) English course in a community college. Faculty at the college had established a four-week, two-credit compressed course that enabled students to enroll in an eleven-week first-year composition (FYC) course in the same semester, reducing remediation from fifteen weeks to just four weeks. The course focused on writing argumentative essays using sources. The study used a quasi-experimental design with five instructors and sixty-six students to compare the experimental curriculum to a business-as-usual control condition. In the experimental curriculum, students learned strategies for writing using sources, including strategies for critical reading and for planning and revising. In addition to writing and reading strategies, students also learned metacognitive, self-regulation strategies, such as goal setting, task management, and reflection. The study found a large positive effect (ES = .96) of the treatment on quality of an argument essay written using sources. However, no significant effects were found on a summary outline, self-efficacy, or completion of the subsequent FYC course. The study demonstrates the value of strategy instruction in DE English courses; it is the first experimental study of strategy instruction in an accelerated DE course. Further research is needed to evaluate the effects of strategy instruction in corequisite courses and in FYC.

Lifelong learning skills have been shown to benefit students during and after college. This paper discusses the use of the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) in a first-year composition course. Reflective writing assignments and pre- and post-semester ELLI data were used to assess student growth as lifelong learners over the course of a semester. Statistically significant gains in lifelong learning dimensions were made by students in the study as compared to those in a control group who received no direct instruction. The authors reflect on the outcomes of the project for students and instructors and question the general assumptions often made about the outcomes of a college education, namely, whether students gain lifelong learning skills simply by virtue of attending college, or is more instruction on these “intangible” qualities needed?

This article argues for the importance of teaching reading in first-year composition courses within a metacognitive framework called mindful reading. Crucial for developing more comprehensive literacy practices that students can transfer into other courses and contexts, this framework encourages students to actively reflect on a range of reading practices in order to become more knowledgeable and deliberate about how they read. This work is intended to prepare students to successfully engage with the range of complex texts they will encounter throughout their postsecondary academic careers and beyond.