Writing in Context: Composition in First-Year Learning Communities (Research and Teaching in Rhetoric and Composition)

In this book, the author explores the teaching of writing within first-year learning communities through a dynamic discussion of learning community history, post-process writing theory, and the central tenet that context matters for effective writing instruction. Illustrating the importance of contextuality in the teaching of writing, a detailed examination of a learning community programme at a large state university if provided. In a series of surveys, interviews, and document sharing, student and faculty participants explain how writing instruction operates within and against structural collaboration and integration. The perspectives of the participants highlight the complexities, constraints, and dilemmas that both guide and impede the benefits of the learning community experience, and lead to recommendations for the development or improvement of writing instruction in learning communities and elsewhere. Most importantly, the book confirms the positive elements of teaching writing in learning community programmes while reminding scholars, teachers, and administrators of the necessity of difficult interdisciplinary work—especially how the best ideas and institutions result for a situated and contextual negotiation of disparate perspectives.