TEACHING TO TRANSFER

Adopting a “Writing about Writing” Approach for English 201

Meaghan H. Brewer, PhD

mbrewer2@pace.edu

Writing in the Disciplines

Writing in the Disciplines – recognizes that each discipline has its own rules for writing, which arise from context and genre-specific needs and the ideologies held within that discourse community

Defining Transfer

Transfer – “Something learned in one context . . . [helps] in another”

(David N. Perkins and Gavriel Salomon 22).

The Controversy - Transfer in First-Year Writing

Douglass Downs and Elizabeth Wardle (2007):

“First-year composition (FYC) is usually asked to prepare students to write across the university; this request assumes the existence of a ‘universal educated discourse’ (Russell, ‘Activity Theory’) that can be transferred from one writing situation to another. Yet more than twenty years of research and theory have repeatedly demonstrated that such a unified academic discourse does not exist and have seriously questioned what students can and do transfer from one context to another” (552).

The Controversy (cont’d)

David Russell (1995):

Just as there is “no autonomous, generalizable skill called ball using or ball handling that can be learned and then applied to all ball games,” there is no “autonomous, generalizable skill or set of skills called ‘writing’ that can be learned and applied to all genres or activities” (57,59).

The Controversy (cont’d)

Douglass Downs and Elizabeth Wardle (2007):

“We are not arguing that transfer of writing knowledge cannot happen; rather, we are arguing that ‘far transfer’ is difficult (Perkins and Salomon, ‘Teaching’ and ‘Transfer’) and that most current incarnations of FYC do not teach for it as explicitly as is necessary” (557).

Near vs. Far Transfer

Near transfer – a writing skill/strategy learned in one context is either directly applicable or applicable with little modification to another context

Far transfer – a writing skill/strategy or habit of mind learned in one context has to be modified to make it applicable to another context

Near vs. Far Transfer (cont’d)

Transfer of skills/strategies

Ex. Learning how to use quotations, how to counterargue

Transfer of ways of being/habits of mind

Ex. Work on building students’ ethos in writing their papers transfers to ethos in writing for their future careers

Writing about Writing

• Resists treating writing as a “skill” that can be

unproblematically transferred from one writing situation to

another and that is independent of context

• Instead focuses on teaching writing AS CONTENT

• Students “read writing research, conduct reading and writing

auto-ethnographies, identify writing-related problems that

interest them, write reviews of existing literature on their

chosen problems, and conduct their own primary research”

(Downs and Wardle 558).

Writing about Writing (cont’d)

Benefits• teaches students to be able to analyze and respond to the

new writing situations they will encounter• students become more reflective about writing, realizing

and correcting prior misconceptions

Pitfalls• Students tend to get bored when this is the focus of the

whole semester

Writing about Writing (cont’d)

From Teresa Thonney:• Have students read authentic texts from various

disciplines• Help students notice how academic writing varies• Help students infer and practice academic writing

principles – both the universal and the discipline specific• Help students see that academic writing is dynamic

Works CitedDowns, Douglas and Elizabeth Wardle. “Teaching about Writing,

Righting Misconceptions: (Re)Envisioning ‘First-Year Composition’ as ‘Introduction to Writing Studies.’” College Composition and Communication, 58.4 (2007): 552-584. Print.

Perkins, D. N., and Gavriel Salomon. “Teaching for Transfer.” Educational Leadership, 46.1 (1988): 22 - 32. ProQuest. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.

Russell, David R. “Activity Theory and Its Implications for Writing Instruction.” Reconceiving Writing, Rethinking Writing Instruction. Ed. Joseph Petraglia. Mahwah: Erlbaum, 1995. 51-77. Print.

Thonney, Teresa. “Teaching the Conventions of Academic Discourse.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College, 38.4 (2011): 347-362. Print.