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Writing about Writing


Writing about Writing (WAW), is a method or theory of teaching composition which puts emphasis on reading and writing about writing in the writing course, and reimagines first-year composition as an "introduction to writing studies." This is not to say WAW only teaches a first-year writing course as if it were an introduction to a writing major, but rather it advocates merging the how of writing with its practice. An introduction course to a writing major has both a different audience and purpose than a first-year composition course framed in WAW. The development of WAW is largely credited to Elizabeth Wardle and Douglas Downs after the publication of their 2007 article "Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions."

Composition is not widely recognized as its own discipline. Composition instructors strive to teach students how to become better writers. As public perception often shapes public policy, this uninformed view of composition as a legitimate field of study has contributed to a lack of funding and emphasis on composition classes in academia.

In 2007, Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle published an article titled "Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions" in which they propose a reform of first-year composition instruction based on the results of a test course they developed. This course sought "to improve students' understanding of writing, rhetoric, language, and literacy" and promoted a view of reading and writing as scholarly inquiry, encouraging "more realistic conceptions of writing." The article is considered to be revolutionary by other scholars in the field, and it's frequently cited by those who have continued the work in the WAW movement.

In the article, Downs and Wardle deny the existence of a universal educated discourse, which conflicts with first-year composition goals of preparing students to write across the curriculum. Downs and Wardle write that teaching students how to write across the curriculum supports the idea that "writing is not a real subject, that writing courses do not require expert instructors, and that rhetoric and composition are not genuine research areas or legitimate intellectual pursuits."

The article goes on to outline the course they designed that is centered more on teaching the students about "writing studies", rather than how to write in college. The authors discuss readers, research assignments, reflective assignments and presentation assignments before going on to report case-studies of two students who took Downs' and Wardle's WAW-centered first-year composition course. While these were different types of students who had different learning outcomes, both stories illustrate the flexible nature of WAW and how this type of course can be tailored towards individual student needs. The authors discuss several benefits they observed of using WAW to teach first-year composition, but also indicate the presence of challenges associated with teaching this kind of course, and address both these challenges as well as critiques they received from colleagues.


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