Researching FYC Programs: Investigating Student Readiness, Program Relevance, and Relationships betw

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Researching FYC Programs Investigating Student
Readiness, Program Relevance, and Relationships
between Writing Programs

• Presenters University of Tennessee
• Bill Doyle
• Mary Jo Reiff
• Presenters University of Washington
• Anis Bawarshi
• Sergio Casillas
• Rachel Goldberg
• Megan Kelly
• Angela Rounsaville

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URL for UT/UW Prior Genre Study

• For a copy of todays PowerPoint presentation, in
  addition to copies of survey questions, interview
  questions, and preliminary results, please visit
• http//utuwpriorgenre.blogspot.com

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Overall Research Questions

• What genres (written, oral, digital) do students
  already know when they arrive in first-year
  composition courses?
• How do students use their prior genre knowledge
  when writing new genres for first-year
  composition courses?
• What factors contribute to how and why students
  transform prior genre knowledge into new genre
  knowledge?
• To what extent does this prior knowledge help or
  hinder students ability to gain access to
  academic discourse?

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Research Questions for Presentation

• What genres do study students write most
  frequently?
• What genres do students write most in different
  domains (school, work, other)?
• What genres overlap domains the most?

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Research Questions for Presentation

• What kinds of writing do students most enjoy and
  why?
• What kinds of writing do students least enjoy and
  why?
• What do students consider their most successful
  writing and why?
• What do student consider their least successful
  writing and why?
• What prior writing experiences do students think
  will most help them succeed in FYC?

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Data Model for Research on Genre Learning

• Students have created or developed a sense of
  new genres at levels below the conscious and are
  using shaping or creative powers that were
  neither verbal nor rational. The data on which
  such creative shaping operate include the
  following
• 1. Students past and current reading
• 2. Students own previous essays
• 3. Teachers assignments
• Talk elicited about writing
• --Aviva Freedman, Learning to Write Again
  Discipline-Specific Writing at University.
  Carleton Papers in Applied Language Studies 4
  (1987) 95-116.

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Research Methods

• Survey of Composition I students re past
  literacy experiences (reading, writing, digital
  literacy), both in school and out of school
• Discourse-based interviews asking student to
  reflect on how they called on previous discursive
  resources in order to write their first paper in
  FYC
• Collection and analysis of writing produced in
  FYC as well as syllabi and writing assignments.

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Survey

• Part I Demographic Information (gender, race,
  class, major, educational background)
• Part II Access to Technology at Home and School
• Part III Identification of types of
  communication in school, outside of school, and
  on the job

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Survey

• Part IV Open-ended Questions
• What is your favorite/least favorite kind of
  writing? Why?
• What kinds of writing have you had the most
  success performing?
• What do you consider your most/least successful
  piece of writing (in school or out) and why?
• What do you do when you encounter new writing
  tasks? What resources, skills, or habits do you
  draw on?
• What high school writing experiences (if any) do
  you think will help you most to succeed in your
  college writing course?

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UT Student Sample

• Surveys distributed to 10 of all English 101
  Composition I courses (Fall 2006) or 15 randomly
  selected sections of 101 (N345)
• Number of students responding to the survey 52
• Follow-up interviews with 9 students

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Profile of UT Students Surveyed

• Gender Race Languages
• Spoken

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Profile of UT Students Surveyed

• Economic Class

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Profile of UT Students Surveyed

• Parent/Guardian Educational Background

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Profile of UT Students Surveyed

• Type of School Attended Class Rank

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Profile of UT Students Surveyed

• Majors
• Business (10)
• Nursing (7)
• Undecided (6)
• Engineering (4)
• Education (3)
• Pharmacy (3)
• Psychology (2)
• Pre-Med (2)
• Sciences (2)
• Law, Advertising, Optometry, Economics, Theater,
  Interior Design, Sports Management, Exercise
  Science, Architecture, Music, Computer Science,
  Spanish, Anthropology (1)

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UW Student Sample

• Surveys distributed to all students enrolled in
  33 sections English 131 Expository Writing (Fall
  2006) (N748)
• Number of students responding to the survey 64
• Follow-up interviews with 18 students

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Profile of UW Students Surveyed
Gender
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Profile of UW Students Surveyed
Race
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Profile of UW Students Surveyed
Languages Spoken Fluently
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Profile of UW Students Surveyed
First Language/Dialect
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Profile of UW Students Surveyed
Economic Class
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Profile of UW Students Surveyed
Parent/Guardian Educational Background
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Profile of UW Students Surveyed
Type of School Attended
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Profile of UW Students Surveyed
Class Rank
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Profile of UW Students Surveyed
Major
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UT Survey What genres do students write most
frequently?
Tie in ranking
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UT Survey What genres do students write most in
school?
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UT Survey What genres do students write most out
of school?
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UT Survey What genres do students write most on
the job?
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UT Survey What genres overlap in these domains
(in school, out of school, at work)?
Genre List
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UT Survey What genres overlap in these domains
(in school, out of school, at work)?
Student Self-Report
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Genres UW Students Write most Frequently
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Genres UW Students Write most in School
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Genres UW Students Write most at Work
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Genres UW Students Write most in Other Domains
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Genre Use Overlap School and Work
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Genre Use Overlap School and Outside
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Genre Use Overlap Work and Outside
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Genre Use Overlap School, Work, and Outside
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UT Survey What is your favorite kind of writing?
Why?

• Creative Writing 16 Total (8 no specified genre,
  4 poetry, 2 short stories, 1 creative nonfiction,
  1 fantasy)
• Emotive/Expressive It's what you're feeling.
  I can express myself. It is about what I'm
  thinking and feeling. It allows me to set my
  own rules and express myself. I use it to
  express emotions, convey ideologies, and to
  reflect my growth. Because it allows me to
  express my feelings and thoughts and I can never
  be wrong about how I feel. You can really write
  about something youre passionate about. I love
  rhyming and expressing my feelings in ways that
  dont always have to be perfect in grammar and
  composition.
• ? Other Reasons I can structure the paper how I
  want and infuse the information I deem worth
  writing about. No right or wrong way to do it.
  I like to come up with different ideas.

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UT Survey What is your favorite kind of writing?
Why?

• Personal Writing, Personal Essays, Personal
  Letter 6
• I can just write how I feel and analyze myself
  rather than analyzing something I haven't seen
  before.
• Freewriting 5
• You can write whatever comes to mind.
• Journaling 5
• Theres no particular form. It is just your
  opinions and thoughts. A way for me to express
  my emotions and whats going on in my life
  daily.
• Persuasive 4
• I have used it the most and feel most
  comfortable with it. It is what was most
  heavily taught to us in school.
• Research 4
• It is what I have done the most of. I know all
  the information that has to go into the paper and
  I know its not the wrong answer. Enjoy the
  research and the preparation.

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UT Survey What is your least favorite kind of
writing? Why?

• Research Papers 14
• I have a hard time determining reliable
  sources. Don't enjoy having to hunt down
  sources and compile them, or twist them to fit an
  argument. All of the citations. Structured
  and tedious. Have to follow many guidelines.
  They are on the research of other people that we
  combine all together in one paper. Boring and
  require no imagination. Topic is something I
  generally don't care about. Difficult to write
  without sounding like a report.
• Creative 12 Total (Poetry 9, No Specified Genre
  3)
• It is never interpreted how it is supposed to be
  interpreted. I think it is hard to understand.
  I just dont get it. I suck at it. Does not
  come easily to me and I have to work at it. I
  find it difficult to write. Despise it.

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UT Survey What is your least favorite kind of
writing? Why?

• Analytical 6
• Poetry is already written words, and I just
  don't like having to analyze someone else's
  thoughts or feelings. Usually the topic we have
  to analyze I either don't know much about or care
  about. I do not always get the main point and
  therefore do badly. Structured. It's hard for
  me to dig really deep into the meaning of
  something. I have a hard time analyzing
  someone else's work that is on paper when I can't
  talk to them in person.
• Reports 6
• You usually have to interpret what someone else
  is trying to say when you don't even know them.
  Its simply summarizing another's thoughts.
  They are often assigned on a topic, rather than
  on something students wants to learn about. All
  the guidelines involved and because of the lack
  of my own opinion. Following a set format, and
  that usually is boring. Not interested/forced
  to write on those topics.

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From UT Survey What kinds of writing have you
had the most success performing?

• Genres identified by form/mode

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From UT Survey What kinds of writing have you
had the most success performing?

• Genres identified primarily by rhetorical purpose
  or aim

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From UT Survey What do you consider your most
successful piece of writing (in school or out)?

• 45 respondents total (could be more than one
  response)

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From UT Survey What do you consider your most
successful piece of writing (in school or out)?
Why?

• Interest in subject self-investment/enjoyment
  14
• My first paper I turned in for my Freshman
  college comp. class. It was a rhetorical analysis
  of an artifact that was meaningful to us. I chose
  some thing I really loved and you could feel it
  in my writing.
• Time investment work and effort put in 11
• A big research paper for my sophomore English
  class because we worked on them for over a month.
  We had to turn in research cards, outlines,
  several rough drafts. This paper was probably the
  best I have written because I spent a lot more
  time on it than I have spent on any other paper.

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From UT Survey What do you consider your most
successful piece of writing (in school or out)?
Why?

• Rhetorical Effectiveness 9
• My senior speech I wrote for graduation. I
  wrote my speech and tweaked it for months before
  my audition. When I heard that I got picked, I
  was really excited. Everyone has always told me
  that I am a good public speaker but I'd never
  really put any stock in it. When gave my speech
  it was received very well. Giving my speech was
  received really well and that experienced has
  changed my life.
• New information learned 5
• My Senior Project research paper because it
  focused on my major in college and provided me
  with great new knowledge.

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From UT Survey What do you consider your most
successful piece of writing (in school or out)?
Why?

• Grade earned 5
• My research paper senior year on the author of
  the Harry Potter series. I got one of the
  highest grades in the class on it.
• Knew expectations and met requirements 3
• My most successful piece of writing was senior
  year of high school. This was a research paper.
  It was successful because I knew exactly what the
  teacher wanted and it was not opinionated or
  analyzed at all. I researched the topic in depth
  and wrote about the information I found.

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From UT Survey What do you consider your least
successful piece of writing? Why?

• 46 respondents (could be more than one response)

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From UT Survey What do you consider your least
successful piece of writing? Why?

• Lack of enjoyment/interest 12
• A research paper I did in high school because I
  didnt care about the subject.
• Lack of Quality 8
• Any type of poetry because I suck at it.
• Lack of preparation/effort 5
• A paper that I had to write at the beginning of
  junior year, because I wrote it in one night and
  spent little to no time on it.

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From UT Survey What do you consider your least
successful piece of writing? Why?

• Rhetorical ineffectiveness 3
• Any poetry I did because I was never able to
  accomplish what the teacher had intended.
• Time restrictions 4
• Something in-class--I probably put it together
  too quickly and it probably seemed sophomoric.
• Too many rules/restrictions 3
• The writing assessment paper in my junior year
  of highschool where you are given a topic and a
  time limit and you have to write a five point
  essay.

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UW Survey Reflective Questions 1-4

• What types of writing do you most enjoy? Why?
• What types of writing do you least enjoy? Why?
• What do you consider to be your most successful
  piece of writing? Why?
• What do you consider to be your least successful
  piece of writing? Why?

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UW Survey What types of writing do you most
enjoy? What types of writing do you least enjoy?
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UW Survey What do you consider to be your most
successful piece of writing? What do you
consider to be your least successful piece of
writing?
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Comparison of all reported genre types
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UW Survey Reasons for Most Enjoyable Writing
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Most Enjoyable Writing

• I enjoy journal writing because it allows me to
  express myself and my emotions and serves almost
  as a purging of emotions. Scholastically, I most
  enjoy research papers since they are, frankly,
  the easiest.
• Generally I enjoy writing persuasive essays
  because I can find my own evidence and I dont
  have to rely on a text that I am given. I find
  it easier to find my own texts and understand
  those better than the texts given to me by
  teachers/professors.

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UW Survey Reasons for Least Enjoyable Writing
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Least Enjoyable Writing

• Literary analysis - never found the most
  correct meaning without Cliff/Spark notes.
  Formal presentations - I feel like a lobster
  being judged on its ability to jump through a
  hoop.
• I least enjoy essays because I have to make
  sense to the reader and Im not good at that.
  Also because Im absolutely terrible at making a
  point or a thesis statement of some kind.

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UW Survey Reasons for Least Successful Writing
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Least Successful Writing

• Any piece of writing that I do for a class where
  I do not learn anything and is never read again
  after the initial grading.
• My first essay I wrote for my freshman English
  class. Coming out of a private school that
  stressed English grammar, I entered a public
  school setting that expected some sort of writing
  ability. Having never learned how to properly
  write an essay, I struggled tremendously with my
  first essay.

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UW Survey Reasons for Most Successful Writing
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Most Successful Writing

• A personal narrative essay that addressed the
  most important lessons I have learned in the past
  thirteen years. It was submitted for the senior
  profiles section of my schools yearbook. I
  wrote about my struggle with my disability and
  how I overcome much adversity, learning important
  life lessons while inspiring many people. I used
  this essay for college applications and
  scholarships. I also shared it with family and
  friends who wanted to know more about me.

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Most Successful Writing

• I havent really measured my writing in success,
  but I guess it would have to be a poem I wrote in
  eight grade that was published as part of a
  student collection.
• that would have to be a literary analysis I
  wrote for my ap english class. I made my point
  and supported it with quotes, plus I got a good
  grade on it.
• I wrote a sequel of sorts to Shakespeares All
  the worlds a stage piece. I compared life to
  advances in computing I through it came out
  well, and my teacher loved it to the point of
  keeping a copy for herself and giving me extra
  points. It stands out in my mind because it made
  me realize that my writing could entertain (and
  do a good job of it).

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Preliminary Findings

• Findings do not indicate correlation between
  enjoyment/success and genre type
• Students tend to associate enjoyment with
  personal fulfillment
• Students tend to express lack of enjoyment, lack
  of success, and success in social terms
• Genre type does not predict success success may
  be dependent on uptake and social action

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From UT Survey What do you do when you
encounter new writing tasks? What resources,
skills, or habits do you draw on?

• Knowledge of Writing Process 24 Prewriting
  (freewriting/brainstorming)-14 outlining-4,
  drafting-3, revising-3
• --When I encounter new writing tasks I often
  think about the task in depth for a couple of
  hours and then do some free writing. When I have
  most of my thoughts gathered and somehow down on
  paper, I try to organize them. I let many others
  read and correct mistakes on every paper I
  write.
• --I find that brainstorming before I start
  writing helps me greatly.

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From UT Survey What do you do when you
encounter new writing tasks? What resources,
skills, or habits do you draw on?

• Outside feedback 16 teachers-6, peers-3,
  experienced writers-5, family-2
• --I talk to other people, teachers or
  experienced writers in my class, and see how they
  would go about writing it.
• --The best resource I have found is having
  someone proof read my papers. I think having
  someone else read it, they will find mistakes
  that you didn't notice, or maybe just clarify
  something that didn't make much sense.
• --Ask Teacher or my mother which is a professor
  for assistance or more explanation, Read other
  peoples writings that are similar.

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From UT Survey What do you do when you
encounter new writing tasks? What resources,
skills, or habits do you draw on?

• Online research 11
• --I generally google it to find out more
  information.
• --Look up examples on the internet or library.
• --Mostly I like to turn to information on the
  internet when I do not know what I am doing. It,
  for me, is simply the easiest thing to work
  with.

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From UT Survey What do you do when you
encounter new writing tasks? What resources,
skills, or habits do you draw on?

• Reference to past educational experiences,
  skills, and resources 10
• --Think about what my past teaches have showed
  me and I use those experiences to help me.
• --Past experiences and resources I found back in
  high school.
• Reference to past writing/samples 7
• --I try to pull from my successful papers and
  past writing directions.

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What previous writing experience do you think
will help you most to succeed in this course or
in writing at the University of Tennessee?

• High school writing/Genres 16
• (papers-3, research-2, persuasion-2, critique-2,
  essay-2, report-2, TCAP, fantasy, senior
  portfolio)
• --My research and persuasion papers I had to
  write for Contemporary Issues.
• --My experience in writing in high school
  critiques, essays, reports, etc.
• --Persuasive essays are probably the most
  helpful that I have completed before for this
  course.

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What previous writing experience do you think
will help you most to succeed in this course or
in writing at the University of Tennessee?

• High school writing courses 9
• --My entire senior English class in high school
  in which we covered a little of everything.
• --My senior English class from high school will
  probably be the most helpful because of the way
  my teacher exposed me to the different writing
  styles and helped us cover many different areas
  of writing.
• --I think that writing several papers in high
  school english classes as well as other subjects
  in "writing across the curriculum" programs, i am
  less stressed out by the idea of having to
  write.
• AP courses 8
• --I did write alot of AP essays last year and
  that experience will probably help this year.
• --My AP writing course will help me the most to
  succeed in my writing at UT.

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What previous writing experience do you think
will help you most to succeed in this course or
in writing at the University of Tennessee?

• Writing frequency in past 7
• --Just writing lots of papers in high school.
• --Me writing a essay every week for my English
  class in high school will help me a lot in
  college.
• --My English teacher made us write every week.
  Without her I would be dropping English.
• Influential writing teachers5
• --My senior year teacher was a great teacher
  because she really got to know us individually
  and taught us how to write an appealing paper.
• --I had a great teacher for my senior year
  English IV. I have been reading some advice that
  he gave us.

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Genre as Tool for Learning Genre is a tool for
getting at the resources the students bring with
them, the genres they carry from their educations
and their experiences in society, and it is a
tool for framing challenges that bring students
into new domains that are as yet for them
unexplored, but not so different from what they
know as to be unintelligible. --Charles
Bazerman, The Life of Genre, The Life in the
Classroom, Genre and Writing, 1997
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Considering the syllabus you have received for
English 131, your first week preliminary essay,
and your work toward the first major paper, what
high school writing experiences (if any) do you
think will help you to succeed in the course?
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• Experiences writing different genres 22
• Academic (Research Papers, Term Papers, Analysis
  Papers, Opinion Papers, Persuasive Essays)
• I think that the literary analyses, the ones
  that werent answer this prompt or explain
  this symbol, but the questions that were more
  along the lines of, What did YOU get out of X
  Book? What weve done so far is pretty
  structured, but I get the feeling that these
  structures will give way to a space that well be
  expected to fill with our own ideas, and so I
  think that the guideless free-writing and/or
  open-ended questions about what we as individuals
  understood will be the most helpful.
• I feel that the practice of writing free
  response papers in my AP English class last year
  will be very helpful in helping me formulate
  cohesive arguments in my English papers this
  year.

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• I hate the five-paragraph essay format, but I
  am thankful I had to adhere to it for a time
  because it provides a good starting point for
  writing about a complex or confusing subject.
• 2 Non-Academic (Journals, Creative Writing)
• English II Honors was a course that my teacher
  mistakingly (sic) focused on creative writing.
  Now it aids me because my approach to essay
  prompts are much more appealing to my audience.

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• Skills, strategies, and conventions 11
• My high school writing experience with
  arguments and using blended quotes and analysis
  will help me in this course becasue (sic) it
  helped me to see where arguments were developed
  from, backed and fromed (sic) while also
  providing me with the analysis tools to examine
  an argument and use parts to express what I
  thought the author was trying to convey in the
  piece.
• I think the writing structures that I developed
  in highschool (sic) will really help me. The
  organizational skills that I have aquired (sic)
  need to be tweaked a little bit to allow for more
  complext (sic) topics and ideas.
• Emphasis on how to construct a thesis was
  helpeful (sic), even as we break away from that
  basic construct into producing more complex
  claims.

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• Experiences in AP classes and other college prep
  classes 10
• I think I am MUCH more prepared to write in
  college because of my AP classes, not only
  English but also European and American History
  and government and economics. By taking AP
  courses I feel I have GREATLY increased my
  chances to succeed as a college student. They got
  me out of the mindset that a five paragraph paper
  is the only way to write and got me to start
  thinking abstractly about my writing style.
• AP English!!! Ive seen all of those course
  goals written in the same scary
  vocabulary-wording, and had to adhere to them.

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• The whole experience of high school writing 6
• Nothing specifically comes to mind, just the
  general experience collected after four years of
  essays.
• Influence of teachers 5
• Being taught by two english professors in high
  school was ultimately the most helpful resource,
  simply because I know MLA format, what professors
  are looking for, etc.

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• Experience with the writing process 2
• well we had to edit our papers so that will
  help but I think its good that we actually go
  though the whole process step by step
• Frequency of writing in high school 2
• I think that all the writing I had to do for
  honors english (about 1 essay a week) will help
  me for english 131.
• Just writing a lot.

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UW Course Outcomes

• To demonstrate an awareness of the strategies
  that writers use in different writing contexts.
• To read, analyze, and synthesize complex texts
  and incorporate multiple kinds of evidence
  purposefully in order to generate and support
  writing.
• To produce complex, analytic, persuasive
  arguments that matter in academic contexts.
• To develop flexible strategies for revising,
  editing, and proofreading writing.