UT-UW Prior Genre Study

Background and Research Questions

2010-06-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

A great deal of recent research in the field of rhetoric and composition studies has focused on the transfer of skills learned in first-year writing courses to other courses across the disciplines, but little research has been done on the knowledge of conventions that students bring to the university from their previous literacy experiences in home communities, publics, or their previous schooling. In order to understand more fully what transfers from first-year writing courses, we need to understand more fully what genre knowledge students bring with them into first-year writing courses.

At the same time as some researchers have been concerned with the question of transfer, others have recently called on teachers of first-year writing courses to become more attentive and responsive to the linguistic and cultural differences students bring with them to the university, looking for ways that students could be encouraged to utilize their discursive resources as they encounter and adapt to academic writing conventions. But research has not yet identified what these resources are and how students deploy them when they encounter academic writing tasks. This research study will fill these gaps by addressing writers’ prior discourse knowledge and experience reading and writing genres and investigating how this experience influences their ability to adapt to (and adapt) academic writing expectations.

The study addresses the following research questions: What genres (written, oral, digital) do students already know when they arrive in first-year writing courses? How do students use their prior genre knowledge when writing new genres for first-year writing courses? To what extent does this prior knowledge help or hinder the student’s ability to gain access to academic discourse? What factors contribute to how and why students transform prior genre knowledge into new genre knowledge? How do the antecedent genres that students draw on reflect and reinforce broader cultural variables such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, educational history, family literacy patterns, and to what extent do these variables play a role in students’ ability to access academic genres?

Survey Questions and Interview Protocol

2010-06-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

University of Tennessee:

Link to UT responses from Zoomerang survey.

Downloads:

UTSurvey.doc (42KB)
(survey of past writing experiences)

UTinterview_protocol.doc (29KB)
(protocol for conducting the interviews)

University of Washington:

Downloads:

UW_Survey.pdf (95KB)
(survey of past writing experiences)

UW_Interview_Protocol.doc (35KB)
(phase two interview protocol)

UT and UW Research Participants

2010-06-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

UT and UW Student Demographics

The UT survey respondents included almost twice as many women as men (62% female, 38% male), but our respondents were mostly Caucasian—88%, with 8% African-American. In addition, most spoke English as their only language, with just one student each listing Spanish and Arabic. Class was a bit more varied, with 10% of students identifying as upper class, the majority as upper middle or middle, and 10% identifying as lower middle or lower class. The majority of students (69%) reported a college degree, with 17% some college and 12% high school diploma. As far as educational background, most students attended public school (79%), but there was a range in terms of class rank, with 33% in the top 10%, 38% in the top 25%, and 27% in the 25-50% range. There’s also a pretty good range in terms of majors, although business tops the list, followed by nursing and—since these are first-year students—“undecided.”

The UW survey respondents were equally distributed in terms of gender. 65% identified themselves as Caucasian, 19% Asian, and 2% each American Indian/Alaska Native, Indian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Northern European. 72% percent reported being fluent in one language, 25% in two languages, with 77% claiming English as their first language. In terms of economic class, 44% of students reported family/guardian income over $100,000 (of that, 17% over $150,000), 24% between $60,000 and $100,000, 11% between $40,000 and $60,000, and 12% under $40,000. In terms of parent/guardian education background, 46% reported coming from households with advanced/professional degrees and 31% from households with Bachelor’s degrees. As for the students’ own educational backgrounds, 78% attended public schools and 20% attended private schools. 57% of the students reported graduating in the top ten percent of their class, 19% in the top twenty-five percent, and 19% in the top twenty-five to fifty percent. As far as intended major, 31% intended to study in the natural sciences or engineering, 11% in business, 11% in the humanities, 11% intended to go into medical or dental school, 8% in the social sciences, 6% in architecture and urban planning, and 2% each in aquatic and fishery science, arts, and information science. Fourteen percent were undecided.

Analysis of Interview Data

2010-06-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

Downloads:

Interview Analysis Sample 1 (51KB)

Interview Analysis Sample 2 (49KB)

UT and UW Beginning of Term Essay Prompts

2010-06-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

Downloads:

Prelim Essay.pdf
(Preliminary Essay Prompts)

CCCC Presentation 2008--University of Washington

2008-06-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

Download:

CCCCPresentation08.ppt (984KB)

(Powerpoint slides)

Writing Research Across Borders Conference, Santa Barbara, CA 2008

2008-02-28T19:50:00.000-08:00

Title: Researching Transfer of Writing Across Situation, Time, Medium, and Genre

Description: With the ongoing development of university-wide writing programs and the continued growth of WAC and WID comes an increased need for research into how FYC responds to entering students' abilities and matriculated students' needs. In his proposal for a “R/Evolutionary” writing program and curriculum, David Smit identifies “transferability” as a primary consideration, concentrating on related factors of instructional focus (what is taught), genre (what students write), and context (the numerous situations in which students write).

This roundtable brings together faculty and graduate student co-researchers from four interconnected studies undertaken recently at two different public research universities. The studies include two cross-institutional inquiries into college students' transfer of prior genre knowledge into FYC; a two-year investigation into FYC students' transfer of rhetorical knowledge across academic writing situations and media; and a survey-based study of how students perceive the transferability of FYC research skills. In a structured, three-part conversation, researchers will offer a comparative analysis of their research findings, and they will reflect on their research practices, addressing in particular questions about effective study design and effective strategies for collaboration between faculty and students and between colleagues at different institutions.
• Part I will focus on the collective conclusions researchers draw from interlocking studies of first- and second-year students' transfer of genre, rhetorical, and research knowledge across mediums, assignments, and writing situations.
• During part II, speakers will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their studies' designs, interview and survey protocols, and strategies for working with undergraduate research participants.

Downloads:

SBPart1.doc (48KB)
(Part 1: Study Results)

SBPart2.doc (32KB)
(Part 2: Overview of Methods)

SBUT-UWstudy.ppt (172KB)

(Part I Powerpoint slides)

SBUT-UWstudyPart2.ppt (87KB)

(Part II Powerpoint slides)

WPA Conference Presentation

2007-07-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

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

Download the PowerPoint file (1.6MB)

WPA2007_ResearchingFYC.ppt