Reaching Out from the Writing Classroom

Abstract

This article analyzes college-level composition by exploring how premises that prevail in current research on context-situated writing inform the design of college-level composition courses. Specifically, the discussion builds on the premise that writing in any context, in school or out, should be seen as a situated, public act that makes sense within a constellation of literacy practices. This chapter illustrates how we have enacted these principles in the design and sequencing of assignments in the first-year research writing course at our own institution, Eastern Michigan University. The design of our first-year research writing course is located within the theoretical premises informing our pedagogy; these challenge the notion that college-level writing courses should focus exclusively on helping students enter an “academic discourse community” and suggest instead that they should help students think strategically and become flexible writers.