For the last 150 years, no course has been so pervasive, so fundamentally wanted by college faculty and staff, and perhaps so fundamentally hated by first-year college students, and yet so absolutely remembered by college graduates, as the ubiquitous first-year composition course, often known as “English 101” or “Freshman Comp.” The course, as we know it, began in the mid-1800s at Harvard as a direct response to the perception some faculty had that students entering college could not write, even though they had gone to elite private schools and had been extensively trained for entering college. Interestingly, although we have taught college composition as a required course at almost every college or university, and despite the fact that we’ve done so for over a century, we continue to hear one constant refrain: college students can’t write. Ask any professor on campus and you’re likely to hear that.

So why do we keep teaching this course? Do we have some desire to see ourselves as martyrs for an abstract (and seemingly hopeless) cause? Do we really think we’re teaching students to be better writers (even if they don’t always produce better writing in every situation)? Certainly, the university and the community invest in this course, as does an entire discipline of scholars and researchers. There are a host of different reasons and rationales for teaching composition, many of which we’ll explore during the semester through readings, class visits, and discussions.

This course exists to help graduate students in English Studies to understand the complexities surrounding the teaching of writing so that they might offer their future students the most pedagogically sound and rewarding experience with writing that they can.

If you are a student enrolled in this course, you can use the links in the top menu to register/login and get into the password-protected parts of this site. If you are a visitor who is interested in the course or in knowing more about some of the activities or assignments, feel free to email the professor, Dr. Banks, at his university address: banksw [at] ecu [dot] edu.