First-year Composition Course Research Articles

The Effectiveness of Software Designed to Detect AI-Generated Writing: A Comparison of 16 AI Text Detectors

Abstract This study evaluates the accuracy of 16 publicly available AI text detectors in discriminating between AI-generated and human-generated writing. The evaluated documents include 42 undergraduate essays generated by ChatGPT-3.5, 42 generated by ChatGPT-4, and 42 written by students in a first-year composition course without the use of AI. Each detector’s performance was assessed with regard to its overall accuracy, its accuracy with each type of document, its decisiveness (the relative number of uncertain responses), the number of false positives (human-generated papers designated as AI by the detector), and the number of false negatives (AI-generated papers designated as human). Three detectors – Copyleaks, TurnItIn, and Originality.ai – have high accuracy with all three sets of documents. Although most of the other 13 detectors can distinguish between GPT-3.5 papers and human-generated papers with reasonably high accuracy, they are generally ineffective at distinguishing between GPT-4 papers and those written by undergraduate students. Overall, the detectors that require registration and payment are only slightly more accurate than the others.

Curriculum development for translingual orientation: Teaching poetry writing in first-year Composition Courses


 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. 

An exploratory study of English as a Second Language students’ “citation” patterns in multimodal writing

This study explores how English as a Second Language (ESL) students make reference to outside sources and incorporate textual repetition using multimodal resources in a video project. ESL students’ source use and citation practices have been studied extensively in the context of traditional text-based writing. However, little attention is paid to the issue of making citations in multimodal writing, despite the fact that multimodal writing has been a popular topic in recent decades. The current study bridges this gap by analyzing the cases of multimodal citation in 14 videos created by ESL students in a first-year composition course, accompanied by insights from two students. The analysis yields three patterns of incorporating sources—concurrently afforded, verbally afforded, and visually afforded citations—that employ different combinations of visual and audio resources. Direct quotations are incorporated as part of the narration as well as the visual representation. These multimodal citations and quotations fulfill three broad rhetorical functions: attribution, exemplification, and establishing links between sources. There is also evidence of knowledge transfer across genre and cultural boundaries. This study provides insights into how modal affordances could be leveraged to acknowledge propositional content in creative and rhetorically effective ways. It provides pedagogical ideas for designing multimodal assignments to engage students in the critical discussion of audience, intertextuality, and discourse community.

Business and technical writing pedagogy

Given the rise in business and technical writing (BTW) courses in writing programs and English departments, there is a need to develop not only a pedagogy for BTW but one that considers BTW’s institutional context. Context is a problematic focus for pedagogy, as we have seen in recent scholarship on student writing, theory of genre, and transferability of skills to other academic disciplines. That scholarship views the uncertain and unclear contexts of academic composition courses and their genres as preventing the full student understanding of genre that is needed for students to develop transferable writing skills. The continuation of that scholarship into BTW regards the instruction of BTW, as inside academia rather than within the workplace, as suffering from similar concerns with context. Rather than viewing BTW as downstream from or supplemental to composition instruction, this article argues that we should examine the genres of BTW as unique in their contingency to the writing process and yet just as able to pursue the goals of composition instruction and liberal arts education as first-year composition (FYC) courses. By focusing on the reader of BTW genres as determinant in the contingency of the writing situation, we see BTW as less problematic than FYC in its support of key composition goals such as the creation of original arguments and effective management of supporting materials. The awareness of readership and argumentation allows for a pedagogy supportive of contingent and part-time faculty as well as full-time composition faculty regardless of their respective professional experience.

The “Problem” of L2 Writers in College Composition Placement: Identity, Outcomes, and the Future of Directed Self Placement

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?

Rediscovering the Uptake of Dashboard Feedback: A Conceptual Replication of Foung (2019)

Learning analytics has been widely used in the context of language education. Among the studies that have used this approach, many have developed a dashboard that aims to provide students with recommendations based on data so that they can act on these suggestions and improve their performance. To further our understanding of dashboard research, this study aims to replicate an earlier study using a new data mining strategy, association rule mining, to explore if the new strategy can (1) generate comparable results; and (2) provide new insights into feedback uptake in dashboard systems. The original study was conducted with 423 students at a Hong Kong university and implemented a dashboard for a suite of first-year composition courses. It used a classification tree to identify factors that could predict the uptake of tool-based and general recommendations made by the dashboard. After performing association rule mining with the original data set, this study found that this approach allowed for the identification of additional useful factors associated with the uptake of general and tool-based recommendations with a higher accuracy rate. The results of this study provide new insights for dashboard research and showcase the potential use of association rule mining in the context of language education.

Necessity is the mother of invention: Accessibility pre, inter, & post pandemic

At a time when many writing studies faculty are both rising to and collapsing under the challenges of teaching during a pandemic, this article argues that our field is at a decisive moment concerning accessibility. Using mixed-methods data from eight first-year composition courses, this research analyzes and articulates how some students discern the accessibility of instructional materials through the framework of Universal Design (UD). The visibility of such student perceptions must be increased and shared widely, as we seek to be more inclusive and reflective professionals. As we look to a future of post-pandemic tech-mediated teaching and learning, this article also demonstrates how one might replicate, refine, and apply similar study designs which can ultimately help us to be more attentive to inclusivity in the initial stage of course development and research.

Feature: Working Conditions for Contingent Faculty in First-Year Composition Courses at Two-Year Colleges

This article reports on the working conditions of one hundred faculty who teach first-year composition at two-year colleges across the US.

Stop Trying to Do It All! The Team-Teaching Producer/Presenter Model for Virtual Classrooms

While teaching during a global pandemic has had many challenges, perhaps the greatest challenge facing faculty has been pivoting to a virtual format. Research has indicated for years that a “producer” should facilitate virtual teaching, improving the experience for the presenter and participants, but many faculty attempted to “do it all,” teaching virtual classes solo. We employed team-teaching as we combined 2 virtual sections of our first year composition course (FYC) with one instructor acting as “presenter” and the other acting as “producer” to explore whether the team-teaching producer/presenter (TTPP) model of virtual teaching could increase student success rates and create a sustainable model for faculty. Using practical action research, we collected data from different course modalities of FYC sections at our institution over a period of 2 years to compare pass rates, retention rates, and student evaluation data across all sections of our FYC to our TTPP virtual sections; we analyzed our student feedback from various surveys; and we included our own anecdotal observations. Our preliminary findings showed improved pass/retention rates over those of solo virtual and hybrid virtual sections. Our student-evaluation numbers were among the highest across all sections of FYC. Overall, these findings suggest that there are many new opportunities for research to further demonstrate that virtual teaching, especially in the TTPP model, should persist beyond pandemic necessity and become a sustainable and affordable additional model for remote learning.

How Does the Language Control of L1 and L2 Writers Develop Over Time in First-Year Composition?

Most U.S. colleges and universities expect students to improve their writing ability by taking first-year composition (FYC) courses. In such courses, non-native English (L2) writers with diverse language backgrounds study alongside their native English (L1) speaking peers. However, it is not clear how different these populations are in terms of their language development over time, leaving questions unanswered about whether L2 writers develop more or less than L1 writers in an FYC curriculum. To investigate, we compared 75 L1 and L2 students’ written accuracy, fluency, and lexical and syntactic complexity over the semester of an FYC course. Data showed that L2 students had significantly higher rates of language error and less fluent and lexically complex writing compared to L1 writers. Moreover, L2 student writing became less grammatically accurate over 14 weeks despite showing greater fluency and syntactic complexity. These results suggest a need for plurilingual pedagogies in FYC that embrace diversity and inclusion while also providing L2 writers with instruction on socially powerful and dominant linguistic forms.

Literacy, Curriculum, and Pedagogies: Considerations for Anthropologists Teaching First-Year Composition

Despite the fact that this article began as a formal response to Chattaraj (2020), it serves a larger purpose in contextualizing the first-year composition classroom and the training required to provide effective instruction to students across all academic fields. Although an anthropologically-minded approach to the teaching of writing can be quite beneficial, suggesting that an anthropologist can—or even should—assume the responsibilities of first-year composition without additional training is ill-advised. To this end, this article draws upon not only the prior literature on Composition/Rhetoric, but also on the place and benefits of writing in the anthropology classroom more generally. Because the initial publication (i.e. Chattaraj, 2020) relied strictly on personal anecdotal evidence for academic success in a particular classroom setting at a liberal arts university, the findings are not generalizable to most post-secondary institutions due to the institutional accreditation requirements for educators, the concerning statistics on the literacy rates of incoming undergraduate students, the general objectives of curricular pathways, and the remarkable consistency found in first-year composition courses. As a result, this response presents a transparent overview of the first-year composition classroom and offers concrete suggestions for anthropologists who endeavour to support writing across the curriculum and/or in the disciplines.

Taking the Long View

Abstract This article discusses how the concept of undergraduate research has evolved from an artificial academic exercise, typically introduced in first-year composition courses, to an authentic activity that engages students in primary research. Through these authentic experiences, students have opportunities to learn why research is valued in colleges and universities, to see themselves as makers of knowledge, and often to contribute to their communities.

Seeking Alternatives: How Task Instruction Affects Comprehension of Texts with Conflicting Information

This study investigated whether task instruction affected comprehension of multiple conflicting-view texts after controlling for a number of individual difference variables and whether the effects of task instruction varied as a result of post-reading assessment tasks. Recruited from a First-Year Composition course, 64 participants received a task instruction that set the goal of seeking an alternative explanation and reframed argument as a process of conversation and exploration. Multiple-text comprehension was measured by a synthesis writing task and an argument writing task. The results showed that participants given the instruction outperformed participants in the control condition, as reflected in their argument writing. Among the control variables, beliefs about argumentation, need for cognition and topic interest were positively correlated with comprehension measures. These results highlight the importance of cultivating divergent thinking of multiple perspectives rather than dichotomous thinking of pros and cons. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback in First-Year Composition: Accuracy and Lexical and Syntactic Complexity

First-year composition courses must balance a range of writing instruction priorities including genre and audience awareness with language instruction, particularly for second-language writers. Despite the attested efficacy of dynamic written corrective feedback for language gains in intensive English programs, little research has investigated dynamic written corrective feedback in supporting language and discourse development among L2 first-year composition students. In the present study, pre- and post-test writing from 63 second-language first-year composition writers was analyzed for grammatical accuracy as well as lexical and syntactic complexity. Writers with dynamic written corrective feedback intervention ( n = 30) failed to outperform a control group on nearly all measures, and in fact made significantly more verb errors and demonstrated significantly less syntactic complexity over time compared to the control group. Results suggest that while dynamic written corrective feedback is efficacious in some settings, it may be at cross purposes with other first-year composition discourse-based goals such as genre and audience awareness.

Feature: Lexical Analysis of Reflection Texts in First-Year Composition

Lexical analysis with concordancing software offers faculty a simple tool for analyzing reflective texts in first-year composition courses.

Pedagogy of Validation: Autobiographical Reading and Writing Courses for First-Year, Low-Income Students

This embedded case study leveraged Rendon’s (1994) validation theory as well as theories connecting self-reflection and transformative learning (e.g., Mezirow, 1990, 1997) to examine an autobiographical reading and writing course designed for low-income, first-year students in a comprehensive college transition program at an institution in the Midwest region of the United States. We used interviews with course instructors, longitudinal digital diaries with students, and course observations to understand the nature of the course and how participants experienced it. We found that building community was essential to supporting students’ learning. Within classroom communities, instructors structured opportunities for reflection, validated students’ stories, used culturally relevant texts, and encouraged sharing narratives with peers. These practices in combination cumulatively enhanced students’ writing skills, their confidence, and their sense of belonging. Participants also reported that the course deepened students’ self-awareness and fostered empathy for peers. Our participants highlighted the benefits of incorporating autobiographical reading and writing into first-year composition courses, particularly for low-income students and those with minoritized identities.

(Un)attended this/these in undergraduate student writing: A corpus analysis of high- and low-rated L2 writers

This study reports findings of a comparative analysis of the use of (un)attended this/these in high- and low-rated L2 university student argumentative essays. Specifically, the analysis systematically compares the frequencies, antecedents, verb patterns, and attending noun stance options of (un)attended this/these in 174 assessed essays written by Chinese ESL undergraduate students in a first-year composition course, grouped into high- and low-rated essays. Results reveal that high- and low-rated L2 students use this/these in different ways to establish rhetorical cohesion in building their arguments. Both groups tend to employ attended this/these more frequently, but the low-rated essays include significantly more unattended this/these. The low group relies more on copular verbs and phrasal antecedents, but the high group prefers lexical verbs and clausal/extended discoursal referents; however, with unattended this/these, both groups use copular and lexical verbs equally and the antecedents are predominantly clausal/extended discoursal referents. These two groups of student writers also select different types of stance options for attending nouns, especially in relation to the antecedent referents to which this/these plus noun indicates. We conclude with pedagogical implications for ESL composition instruction.

“When It’s Outside of You”

Through classroom observations and semi-structured, text-based interviews, this study analyzes the impact of a service-learning first-year composition course on students’ rhetorical knowledge. Students’ own words are used to describe their transformative experiences related to academic writing and community service. As a result of what these students called their “investment” in community organizations, they began to see writing itself as advocacy. This article explains how this commitment to writing as advocacy motivated students to develop transferrable writing knowledge.

Uncovering the information literacy skills of first-generation and provisionally admitted students

Librarians have experimented with a variety of instructional models, from one-shots to tutorials to semester-long information literacy courses, to increase the impact of information literacy instruction. This study assessed the information literacy gains of students who participated in the pilot of a new instructional model, in which librarians developed and taught a first-year composition course aimed at first-generation, provisionally-admitted college students. This project demonstrated that this model improved students' performance on a standardized information literacy assessment in comparison with students who received instruction in the form of a one-shot instruction session. The study also explored the information literacy knowledge and skills of students targeted by this approach, including first-year students, first-generation students, and provisionally-admitted students.

Monstrous Composition: Reanimating the Lecture in First-Year Writing Instruction

This article reports on one university’s experiment in resurrecting and reanimating the composition lecture, a one-hundred-plus student section dubbed “MonsterComp,” including the process, outcomes, and lessons learned. Although this restructuring of the first-year composition course was partially motivated by administrative pressures, the main motivation behind this experiment was to enhance teacher training and support while still retaining the workshop environment and low student-to-instructor ratio of traditional composition sections. The course involves multiple stakeholders, including the WPA and graduate student program coordinators, graduate student instructors, and course-based coaches from our university's writing center. Assessment of student work, observations of the course, and surveys administered to stakeholders indicate that the course was successful in terms of teacher training and preserving student learning outcomes.