First Year Composition

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“First Year Composition” is the name of core curriculum courses in colleges that focus on improving a student’s ability to write at the university level. These courses are traditionally required of incoming students, thus the previous name, "Freshman Composition". First Year Composition is a discipline of Composition Studies.

1 Structure of Modern First Year Composition
2 First Year Composition and Rhetoric
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Structure of Modern First Year Composition

First Year Composition is designed so that it meets the goals for successful completion set forth by the Council of Writing Program Administrators. To reach these goals, students learn specific material in both semesters of First Year Composition.

[edit] First Semester Composition

First Year Composition is generally divided into two sections spanning a student's entire first year in college. These courses are, generally, structured so that the student learns to write in these modes:

Evaluation
Classification
Contrast
Comparison
Cause and Effect
Definition
Process
Narrative
Description

The other elements that are key to moving into the next semester of college writing are: audience awareness, thesis, development or invention of ideas, organization and documentation. Grammar and mechanics are usually lower level concerns in academic writing because those issues are taught during student's secondary education.

[edit] Second Semester Composition

Second Semester Composition focuses specifically on teaching students analysis, research and argumentation.

[edit] Analysis

During this semester, students work to compose essays that analyze argumentative scholarship, literary works, and sources they will use in their own writing.

[edit] Argumentation

As they learn to analyze, students are also taught to create an effective argument using the modes they were taught in their first semester of writing as well as analysis.

[edit] Basic Writing

Basic Writing is a division of Composition Studies that strives to bring students entering college to a more complete understanding of the rules of formal English writing. This course is required of students who do not meet general college admissions requirements for writing skills. Placement in a Basic Writing class is usually determined by SAT or ACT scores or from a placement exam given before classes begin.

Basic Writing focuses on teaching students sentence structure, paragraph structure and essay structure as well as basic grammar and syntax. Students in these classes are generally from high schools where writing literacy has not caught up with the modern standard. In addition, Basic Writing classes are composed of ESL students with only some background in English.

[edit] First Year Composition and Rhetoric

With the publication of James Kinneavy's Theory of Discourse in 1971, English departments began incorporating rhetoric into their composition classrooms. ^[1] In doing this, composition instructors have placed more emphasis on teaching audience awareness, Aristotle's three appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos) and teaching Kinneavy's modes of discourse.