Writing Foundations/Composition Resources

Writing Foundations

The goal of the Writing Foundations courses is to provide ECU students with strategies that will help them succeed in the writing that they will do in future courses and contexts, such as:

• identifying and responding to the purpose(s) and audience(s) for a writing project
• generating appropriate questions, topics, and ideas to write about
• drafting, revising, and editing
• using outside sources responsibly and effectively

First-Year Writing Studio 

The First-Year Writing Studio (FYWS), located in Bate 2005, provides support to students enrolled in Writing Foundations courses through individual forty-five minute tutoring sessions with English graduate students. Committed to helping students become both self-sufficient and responsible writers, sessions are structured specifically to keep the decision-making on the shoulders of the student writers. Available to help at any stage of the writing process, FYWS consultants respond as informed and invested readers, helping students to pay attention to their writing processes and products, to set goals to manage their writing processes, and to learn strategies for production and revision rather than proofreading or prescribing quick "fix-its" for their work. The FYWS aims to help student writers develop a new understanding of a collaborative writing process, helping student writers to develop a language for talking about their writing with others and develop flexible writing strategies that will help them beyond the end of a single session.

Teaching Writing/Composition Bibliography

Beaufort, Anne. College Writing and Beyond: A New Framework for University Writing Instruction. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2007.

Johnson, T.R. Teaching Composition: Background Readings. Bedford/St. Martins, 2008.

Roen, D.H., L. Yena, V. Pantoja, E. Waggoner and S.K. Miller, eds. Strategies for Teaching First-Year Composition. Urbana, IL:NCTE, 2002.

Tate, G., A. Rupiper and K. Schick, eds. A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2001.

Walvoord, B. E. Assessment Clear and Simple: A Practical Guide for Institutions, Departments and General Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004.

White, E.M. Assigning, Responding, Evaluating: A Writing Teacher's Guide. Bedford/St. Martins, 2006.

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