CEL facilitates multi-institutional research on engaged learning topics. Participants from institutions around the world collaborate over three years, producing scholarship that shapes research and practice globally.
CEL is home to two book series. In addition, CEL research seminars and other initiatives have produced 100+ publications (to date).
CEL’s concise guides offer research-informed practices for engaged learning.
CEL’s concise guides offer practical strategies for studying engaged learning.
CEL brings together international leaders in higher education to develop, synthesize, and share rigorous research on central questions about student learning.
The CEL Scholar role and CEL Student Scholars program enable Elon faculty and students to deepen their understanding of and professional development in scholarly activity on engaged learning.
Adler-Kassner, Linda, and Elizabeth Wardle, eds. 2015. Naming what we know: Threshold concepts of writing studies. Boulder, CO: Utah State UP.
Contributors define thirty-seven threshold concepts in the discipline of writing studies and examine the application of threshold concepts in specific sites of writing.
Adler-Kassner, Linda. 2014. "Liberal Learning, Professional Training, and Disciplinarity in the Age of Educational ‘Reform': Remodeling General Education." College English 76.5: 436-457.
Adler-Kassner, Linda, John Majewski, and Damian Koshnick. 2012. "The Value of Troublesome Knowledge: Transfer and Threshold Concepts in Writing and History." Composition Forum 26. http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/troublesome-knowledge-threshold.php.
Adler-Kassner, Linda, and John Majewski. 2012. "Current Contexts: Students, Their Instructors, and Threshold Concepts." Presentation at Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis, MO 2012.
Adler-Kassner, Linda. 2017. "Transfer and educational reform in the twenty-first century: College and career readiness and the Common Core Standards." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 15-26. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Anson, Chris. 2012. "Current Research on Writing Transfer." Presentation at National Council of Teachers of English Conference, Las Vegas, NV 2012.
Anson, Chris A., and Jessie L. Moore, eds. 2016/2017. Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer. Fort Collins, CO: The WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado.
Anson, Chris M. 2016. "The Pop Warner Chronicles: A Case Study in Contextual Adaptation and the Transfer of Writing Ability." College Composition and Communication 67 (4): 518-549.
August, Ella, and Olivia S Anderson. 2022. "A Framework for Designing Effective Writing Assignments in Public Health." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 205-220. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
The authors share an eight-item framework for designing effective writing assignments, as well as an example of a “Real-World Writing Project” that gives students practice writing for authentic audiences and purposes. Although focused on writing in public health, the strategies are adaptable to other disciplines.
Baird, Neil, Alena Kasparkova, Stephen Macharia, and Amanda Sturgill. 2022. "“What One Learns in College Only Makes Sense When Practicing It at Work”: How Early-Career Alumni Evaluate Writing Success." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 168-182. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
The Alumni Writing Transfer Project examines the school-to-work transitions of twelve early career alumni from the United States, Kenya, and the Czech Republic and suggests a framework for supporting college students through that transition.
Barnett, Brooke, Woody Pelton, Francois Masuka, Kevin Morrison, and Jessie L. Moore. 2017. "Diversity, global citizenship, and writing transfer." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 59-68. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Bass, Randall. 2017. "Coda: Writing transfer and the future of the integrated university." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 144-154. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Blakeslee, Ann M., Jennifer C. Mallette, Rebecca S. Nowacek, Rifenburg Michael J., and Liane Robertson. 2022. "Navigating Workplace Writing as a New Professional: The Roles of Workplace Environment, Writerly Identity, and Mentoring and Support." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 139-153. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
Highlighting the experiences of eight early-career alumni from five US institutions, these authors illustrate how supports in college and the workplace can prepare students for more successful transitions into workplace writing as alumni.
Bleakney, Julia, Li Li, Emily Holland, Paula Rosinski, and Jessie L Moore. 2021. "Rhetorical Training Across the University: What and Where Students and Alumni Learn about Writing." Composition Forum 47 (Fall 2021). https://compositionforum.com/issue/47/rhetorical-training.php.
The authors report on a survey of students and alumni, examining their “rhetorical training”—their writing knowledge and experiences across multiple courses, campus employment, and workplace contexts. The survey asked participants to identify their most often written genres and their most valued type of writing, the rhetorical situations in which they compose their most valued genre, and the writing processes they have developed. The authors examined the multiple sources of rhetorical training that participants believe prepared them to write their most valued genre. Multiple rhetorical training experiences prepare writers for the writing they value, and both students and alumni describe robust writing processes and appreciate feedback from others. Yet alumni continue to express challenges adapting writing for new audiences and genres.
Bleakney, Julia, Jessie L Moore, and Paula Rosinski, eds. 2022. Writing Beyond the University: Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
Writing Beyond the University: Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing extends the burgeoning scholarly conversation regarding the role of writing in lifelong and lifewide learning. The collection introduces higher education faculty, staff, and administrators to research on how all members of a campus community can prepare learners to be effective writers beyond the university, in personal, professional, and civic contexts.
The collection also discusses how to teach writing and teach with writing across the academic disciplines and in a variety of co-curricular spaces, such as student life, student employment, and career services, and in internship, co-ops, and work-integrated learning opportunities.
Chapters include the perspectives of faculty/staff, learners, and alumni from a variety of international contexts, and chapter authors in our collection study and report on:
Available as an Open Access book at: https://doi.org/10.36284/celelon.oa5
Bleakney, Julia, Paula Rosinski, and Jessie L Moore. 2022. "Introduction: Writing Beyond the University and this Collection." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 1-19. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
In this introduction to the collection, the collection editors use three composite case studies of writers to illustrate what writing beyond the university can entail and to explore how two generations of research have studied that writing. They also briefly preview the collection’s other chapters.
Bleakney, Julia, Heather Lindenman, Travis Maynard, Li Li, Paula Rosinski, and Jessie L Moore. 2022. "Understanding Alumni Writing Experiences in the United States." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 51-69. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
The authors present data from a national survey of college graduates and from three institutional studies to illustrate what writing experiences look like for alumni in the United States and at these institutions. Snapshots from each study explore how institutional efforts like campus-wide writing initiatives, writing majors, campus jobs, and other campus writing experiences prepare students for the writing they’ll encounter as alumni.
Blythe, Stuart. 2012. "Prompting Student Reflection Through Audio-video Journals." Presentation at Conference on College Composition and Communication, Computer Connect Session, St. Louis, MO, March 2012.
Boone, Stephanie, Sara Biggs Chaney, Josh Compton, Cristiane Donahue, and Karen Gocsik. 2012. "Imagining a Writing and Rhetoric Program Based on Principles of Knowledge ‘Transfer': Dartmouth’s Institute for Writing and Rhetoric." Composition Forum 26. http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/dartmouth.php.
Boyd, Diane E. 2014. "Bottleneck Behaviours and Student Identities: Helping Novice Writers Develop in the First Year Seminar and Beyond." Presentation at Threshold Concepts in Practice, Durham, UK 2014.
Boyd, Diane E. 2017. "Student drafting behaviors in and beyond the first-year seminar." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 103-112. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Chiu, Scott C., Stacey Cozart, Ketevan Kupatadze, and Tine Wirenfeldt Jensen. 2014. "Opportunities and Challenges of Writing in a Second Language." Presentation at Writing Reseach Across Borders III, Paris, FR 2014.
Clark, Irene. 2014. "Fostering Transfer Across Writing Contexts: Genre Awareness as a Threshold Concept." Presentation at 12th International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, Minneapolis, MN, July 12, 2014.
Clark, Irene. 2012. "Students’ Awareness of Genre and Rhetoric." Presentation at National Council of Teachers of English Conference, Las Vegas, NV, November 16, 2012.
Clark, Irene. 2012. "Academic Writing and Transferability: Print and New Media." Presentation at Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Albuquerque, NM, July 2012.
Clark, Irene. 2012. "Rhetorical Knowledge and Genre Awareness as Gateway to Transfer." Presentation at Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis, MO, March 2012.
Clark, Irene, and Andrea Hernandez. 2011. "Genre Awareness, Academic Argument, and Transferability." The WAC Journal 22: 65-78. https://wac.colostate.edu/journal/vol22/clark.pdf.
DasBender, Gita. 2012. "Reflective Writing and Knowledge Transfer of Multilingual Students." Presentation at New Jersey College English Association (NJCEA) Conference, South Orange, NJ, April 14, 2012.
DasBender, Gita. 2012. "Explicit Teaching, Mindful Learning: Writing Knowledge and Skills Transfer of Multilingual Students in First-Year Writing." Presentation at Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis, MO, March 24, 2012.
DePalma, Michael-John, Lilian W. Mina, Kara Taczak, Michelle J. Eady, Radhika Jaidev, and Ina Alexandra Machura. 2022. "Connecting Work-Integrated Learning and Writing Transfer: Possibilities and Promise for Writing Studies." Composition Forum 48. https://compositionforum.com/issue/48/work-integrated-learning.php.
Abstract from the authors/article:
This article explores ways that the field of rhetoric and writing studies can benefit from intentional engagement with work-integrated learning (WIL) research and pedagogy in the context of transfer research. Specifically, the article discusses: (1) redesigning writing internship pedagogies to align with WIL learning and curriculum theories and practices; (2) revisiting threshold concepts of writing by accounting for knowledge, theories, and practices that are central to epistemological participation in a variety of professional writing careers; (3) reconsidering notions of vocation to emphasize the ways writers’ personal epistemologies and social trajectories interact with the purposes, aims, and values of academic and workplace contexts; and (4) reconceptualizing writing major curricula in relation to the conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and dispositions of expert writers in a range of professional contexts. In short, we argue that intentional engagement with WIL can enrich work on writing transfer and the field of rhetoric and writing studies as a whole. In addition to our theoretical discussion of the value of engaging with WIL frameworks in writing studies, we introduce our multi-institutional, transnational study of how WIL affects diverse populations of undergraduate students’ recursive transfer of writing knowledge and practices as an example of the kind of generative research on writing transfer and WIL that we are encouraging writing transfer researchers to take up.
DePalma, Michael-John, Lilian W Mina, Kara Taczak, Michelle J Eady, Radhika Jaidev, and Ina Alexandra Machura. 2022. "Writing Across Professions (WAP): Fostering the Transfer of Writing Knowledge and Practices in Work Integrated Learning." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L. Moore and Paula Rosinski, 91-107. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
The chapter authors offer Writing Across Professions as a curricular model that faculty and administrators in higher education can utilize to facilitate students’ transfer of writing knowledge and practices in the context of work-integrated learning.
Donahue, Christiane. 2014. "WAC, International Research, and ‘Transfer': Waves of Troublesome Knowledge." Presentation at 12th International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June 12, 2014.
Driscoll, Dana, Ed Jones, Carol Hayes, and Gwen Gorzelsky. 2013. "Promoting Transfer through Reflection: A Cross-Institutional Study of Metacognition, Identity, and Rhetoric." Presentation at Conference on College Composition and Communication, Las Vegas, NV, March 16, 2013.
Driscoll, Dana L., and Jennifer H. M. Wells. 2012. "Beyond Knowledge and Skills: Writing Transfer and the Role of Student Dispositions in and beyond the Writing Classroom." Composition Forum 26. http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/beyond-knowledge-skills.php.
Driscoll, Dana L. 2014. "Clashing Values: A Longitudinal, Exploratory Study of Student Beliefs about General Education, Vocationalism, and Transfer of Learning." Teaching & Learning Inquiry 2 (1): 21-37. http://tlijournal.com/tli/index.php/TLI/article/view/67/66.
Eady, Michelle J., Ina Alexandra Machura, Radhika Jaidev, Kara Taczak, Michael-John Depalma, and Lilian W. Mina. 2021. "Writing transfer and work-integrated learning in higher education: Transnational research across disciplines." International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning 22 (2): 183-197. https://www.ijwil.org/files/IJWIL_22_2_183_197.pdf.
From the published abstract: “This article explores ways that work-integrated learning (WIL) scholarship and the field of writing studies can benefit from intentional engagement in the context of transfer research. This conceptual paper foregrounds writing in WIL contexts, introduces writing transfer and its relationship to writing in WIL contexts, discusses conceptual overlaps of writing transfer research and WIL, and suggests what writing transfer can mean for WIL practitioners. Overall, we argue that intentional engagement with writing transfer can enrich both WIL research and pedagogy.”
Farrell, Alison, Sandra Kane, Cecilia Dube, and Steve Salchak. 2017. "Rethinking the role of higher education in college preparedness and success from the perspective of writing transfer." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 81-92. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Farrell, Alison, Sandra Kane, Steven P. Salchak, and Cecilia M. Dube. 2015. "Empowered empathetic encounters: Building international collaborations through researching writing in the context of South African higher education and beyond." South African Journal of Higher Education 29 (4): 96-113.
Farrell, Alison, and Sharon Tighe-Mooney. 2015. "Recall, Recognise, Re-Invent: The Value of Facilitating Writing Transfer in the Writing Centre Setting." Journal of Academic Writing 5 (2): 29-42.
Felten, Peter. 2017. "Writing high-impact practices: Developing proactive knowledge in complex contexts." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 49-58. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Fitzpatrick, Brian, and Jessica McCaughey. 2022. "“I’ll Try to Make Myself Sound Smarter than I am”: Learning to Negotiate Power in Workplace Writing." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinki, 154-167. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
While they interviewed over fifty participants, these authors explore in this chapter in detail the experiences of two US-based workplace writers as they grapple with new kinds of writing and learn on the job. The experiences of these two illustrative cases highlight that professionals who are not hired as “writers” often regularly write, and struggle to write with authority, for their jobs.
Fortune, Niamh, Ryan Dippre, Lucie Dvorakova, Alison Farrell, Melissa Weresh, and Nadya Yakovchuk. 2021. "Beyond the University: Towards Transfer." In Emerging Issues IV: Changing Times, Changing Context, edited by Margaret Keane, Claire McAvinia and Íde O'Sullivan, 128-147. Educational Developers in Ireland Network (EDIN).
The authors explore how students experience writing transfer beyond the university using a case study of Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education at Maynooth University. The publication is available at https://www.edin.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/EDINpublicationOnline.pdf
Goldschmidt, Mary. 2014. "Teaching Writing in the Disciplines: Student Perspectives on Learning Genre." Teaching & Learning Inquiry 2 (2): 25-40. http://tlijournal.com/tli/index.php/TLI/article/view/66/37.
Goldschmidt, Mary. 2017. "Promoting cross-disciplinary transfer: A case study in genre learning." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 122-130. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Gorzelsky, Gwen, Carol Hayes, Ed Jones, and Dana Lynn Driscoll. 2017. "Cueing and adapting first-year writing knowledge: Support for transfer into disciplinary writing." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 113-121. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Hillard, Van E. 2012. "Intellectual Ethos as Transcendent Disposition." Presentation at South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Durham, NC, November 11, 2012.
Holmes, Ashley J, Kathleen Blake Yancey, Íde O'Sullivan, D. Alexis Hart, and Yogesh Sinha. 2022. "Lifewide Writing across the Curriculum: Valuing Students' Multiple Writing Lives Beyond the University." The WAC Journal 33: 32-61. https://doi.org/10.37514/WAC-J.2022.33.1.02.
Drawing on surveys, interviews, and maps collected from students at six institutions, this 2019-2021 research seminar team explores student writing lives within course-based, self-motivated, civic, internship, co-curricular, work-based, and other “spheres” of writing. Based on their analysis of students’ writing lives within and across these spheres, the authors advocate re-envisioning writing across the curriculum through a lifewide lens and fostering students’ agency as they continue to develop their lifewide writerly identities.
Kane, Sandra, and Cecilia Dube. 2012. "Perspectives from a South African University on Students’ Writing Apprehension, Attitudes to Writing and Performance." Presentation at International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, Savannah, GA, June 9, 2012.
Kupatadze, Ketevan. 2012. "The Role of Students’ Attitudes Towards Foreign Language Writing and the Problems and Opportunities of Transfer." Presentation at South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Durham, NC, November 11, 2012.
Kupatadze, Ketevan, and Scott Chien-Hsiung Chiu. 2014. "Supporting Second/Foreign Language Writing in Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Academic Environments." Presentation at 12th International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June 14, 2014.
Lauren, Benjamin, and Stacey Pigg. 2022. "“And Sometimes We Debate”: How Networking Transforms What Professional Writers Know." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 221-234. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
The authors argue that social media networking is essential for building writers’ self-agency and suggest ways to teach networking as a transformative writing practice in the classroom. By learning about networking as a transformative practice, students also can think critically about who is in their networks, how to amplify underrepresented voices and ideas, and how to network ethically.
Lusford , Karen, Carl Whithaus, and Johnathan Alexander. 2022. "Collaboration as Wayfinding in Alumni’s Post-Graduate Writing Experiences." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 24-37. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
Drawing upon a pilot study of twenty-two alumni from three different campuses, “Collaboration as Wayfinding” considers how post-collegiates orient themselves to different forms of collaboration, both intentionally and serendipitously. The chapter examines the exploratory, unanticipated, and contingent forms of collaborative writing alumni engage in as they imagine, define, and create goals for shared writing.
Moore, Jessie L. 2012. "Mapping the Questions: The State of Writing-Related Transfer Research." Composition Forum 26. http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/map-questions-transfer-research.php.
Moore, Jessie L. 2012. "Connecting Teacher-Scholars: Igniting Multi-Institutional Research through a Research Seminar." Presentation at National Council of Teachers of English Conference, Las Vegas, NV, November 16, 2012.
Moore, Jessie L. 2012. "A 20×20 Introduction to Writing Transfer Research." Presentation at South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Durham, NC, November 11, 2012.
Moore, Jessie L. 2012. "Connecting Localities with Multi-Institutional Research." Presentation at Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Albuquerque, NM, July 20, 2012.
Moore, Jessie L., and Randall Bass, eds. 2017. Understanding Writing Transfer: Implications for Transformative Student Learning in Higher Education. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
Moore, Jessie L. 2017. "Five essential principles about writing transfer." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 1-12. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Moore, Jessie L. 2014. "The Elon Statement on Writing Transfer and its Implications for WAC." Presentation at 12th International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June 13, 2014.
Moore, Jessie L., and Chris M. Anson. 2016/2017. "Introduction." In Critical transitions: Writing and the question of transfer, edited by Chris M. Anson and Jessie L. Moore, 3-13. Fort Collins, CO: The WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado.
Phuong Pham, Ha Thi, and Ambinintsoa Vola Dominique. 2022. "Examining the Effects of Reflective Writing and Peer Feedback on Student Writing in and Beyond the University." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 108-123. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
This chapter examines how two types of sustainable writing strategies, facilitated reflection and peer feedback, can help support student writing development in contexts where institutional support is lacking. Studying the longitudinal writing of Malagasy and Vietnamese students, the authors conclude by suggesting ways to make reflection and peer feedback even more meaningful for such students.
Qualley, Donna, Justin Ericksen, Leon Erickson, Samuel Johnson, LeAnne Laux-Bachand, Michelle Magnero, and Aimee Odens. 2013. "(Re)Aligning Expectations: Graduate Student Teachers as Agents of Integration." Presentation at Conference on College Composition and Communication, Las Vegas, NV, March 2013.
Reid, Jennifer, Matthew Pavesich, Andrea Efthymiou, Heather Lindenman, and Dana Lynn Driscoll. 2022. "Writing to Learn Beyond the University: Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 38-50. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
This chapter explores how adults use writing in order to learn in contexts outside of work and school—which the authors term “self-sponsored writing to learn”—as well as how they manipulate the boundaries between these contexts.
Robertson, Liane, and Kara Taczak. 2017. "Teaching for transfer." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 93-102. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Robertson, Liane, Kara Taczak, and Kathleen B. Yancey. 2012. "Notes Toward A Theory of Prior Knowledge and Its Role in College Composers' Transfer of Knowledge and Practice." Composition Forum 26. http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/prior-knowledge-transfer.php.
Robertson, Liane, Kathleen Blake Yancey, and Kara Taczak. 2014. "Shifting Currents in Writing Instruction: Prior Knowledge and Transfer across the Curriculum." Presentation at 12th International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June 14, 2014.
Robertson, Liane, Kara Taczak, and Kathleen Blake Yancey. 2012. "Notes Toward a Theory of Prior Knowledge and its Role in College Composers’ Transfer of Knowledge and Practice." Composition Forum 26. http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/prior-knowledge-transfer.php.
Robertson, Liane. 2012. "Connecting Content and Transfer in Teaching Writing across Contexts." Presentation at South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Durham, NC, November 11, 2012.
Saerys-Foy, Jeffrey, Laurie Ann Britt-Smith, Zan Walker-Goncalves, and Lauren M Sardi. 2022. "Bridging Academic and Workplace Writing: Insights from Employers." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 124-138. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
Representing three US institutions, these authors use results from an employer survey to illustrate how workplace perspectives on writing compare to writing practices often enacted in college classrooms. They discuss strategies for bridging this divide between the different perspectives through writing instruction and practices across the curriculum.
Taczak, Kara. 2012. "The Transfer of Transfer: Moving across Institutional Contexts." Presentation at South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Durham, NC, November 11, 2012.
Taczak, Kara. 2012. "The Question of Transfer." Composition Forum 26. http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/question-of-transfer.php.
Tuomi-Grohn, Terttu, and Yrjo Engestrom, eds. 2003. Between School and Work: New Perspectives on Transfer and Boundary Crossing. Oxford: Pergamon.
Wardle, Elizabeth, and Nicolette Mercer Clement. 2017. ""The hardest thing with writing is not getting enough instruction": Helping educators guide students through writing challenges." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 131-143. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Wardle, Elizabeth. 2007. "Understanding 'Transfer' from FYC: Preliminary Results of a Longitudinal Study." WPA Journal 31 (1-2): 65-85.
Wardle ., Elizabeth. 2012. "Creative Repurposing for Expansive Learning: Considering ‘Problem-Exploring’ and ‘Answer-Getting’ Dispositions in Individuals and Fields." Composition Forum 26.
Wells, Jennifer, Ed Jones, and Dana Driscoll. 2012. "Opening Gateways Across the Curriculum: Writing about Writing and Transfer in High School and College Courses." Presentation at Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis, MO, March 22, 2012.
Werder, Carmen. 2013. "Misaligned Expectations: How They Work as Agents of Disintegration." Presentation at Conference on College Composition and Communication, Las Vegas, NV, March 16, 2013.
Werder, Carmen M. 2017. "Telling expectations about academic writing: If not working, what about knotworking?" In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 69-78. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Wichmann-Hansen, Gitte, Stacey Cozart, Tine Wirenfeldt Jensen, and Gry Sandholm Jensen. 2013. "Grappling with identity issues: Danish graduate student views on writing in L2 English." Presentation at The English in Europe (EiE) conference on the English language in teaching in European higher education, Copenhagen, DK, April 19-21, 2013.
Wichmann-Hansen, Gitte, Stacey Cozart, Tine Wirenfeldt Jensen, and Gry Sandholm Jensen. 2012. "Writing in English is like being married to somebody you don’t know very well: Postgraduate writing in L2 English." Presentation at The NIC Conference on Intercultural Communication, Aarhus, DK 2012.
Yakovchuk, Nadya, Ryan Dippre, Lucie Dvorakova, Alison Farrell, Niamh Fortune, and Melissa Weresh. 2022. "Writing Transitions Between Academic and Professional Settings." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 186-204. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
Drawing on data from three higher education institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, the authors explore how students in varied pre-placement learning contexts (a graduate-level law school, an undergraduate education program, and an undergraduate nursing, midwifery, and paramedic science program) make sense of the writing demands they will face in their placements.
Yancey, Kathleen Blake, D. Alexis Hart, Ahsley J. Holmes, Anna V. Knutston, Íde O'Sullivan, and Yogesh Sinha. 2022. "“There is a Lot of Overlap”: Tracing Writing Development Across Spheres of Writing." In Writing Beyond the University Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing, edited by Julia Bleakney, Jessie L Moore and Paula Rosinski, 74-90. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
Asking students who have completed first-year writing about the contexts in which they write (including classrooms, workplaces, cocurriculars, and internships) and their understandings of relationships between and across these contexts, the research team examines the complex relationships between and among these different contexts, what the authors call “recursivities.”
Yancey, Kathleen Blake. 2017. "Writing, transfer, and ePortfolios: A possible trifecta in supporting student learning." In Understanding writing transfer: Implications for transformative student learning in higher education, edited by Jessie L. Moore and Randall Bass, 39-48. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Yancey, Kathleen, Liane Robertson, and Kara Taczak. 2014. Writing Across Contexts: Transfer, Composition, and Sites of Writing. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.
In Writing across Contexts, Yancey, Robertson, and Taczak draw from studies of transfer, reflective practice, and learning more broadly as they examine the role of curriculum in promoting (or not promoting) students’ transfer of writing knowledge and practices from first-year composition (FYC) to future writing contexts. They compared an expressivist approach, a media and culture theme, and the Teaching for Transfer design for teaching FYC by interviewing faculty, analyzing course materials and students’ writing, and interviewing students both during the semester they were enrolled in FYC and in the subsequent semester.
In brief, students in the expressivist FYC course seemingly drew from prior (high school) experiences with writing, but they did not tap their FYC course content when they wrote for future courses. Similarly, students in the media and culture themed FYC drew on models and process strategies in subsequent writing contexts, since they had not developed rhetorical analysis strategies or writing theories in FYC to guide their examination of and responses to future writing situations. Yancey, Robertson, and Taczak write:
Without discernible content, students fill in their own content; without a theory on which to build and apply knowledge, Carolina turned to models and Darren turned to process. In cases like this – when content or theory is absent or indiscernible, and especially when it is perceived to be at odds with writing in other university sites – models of writing become the teacher and the curriculum…. Too much “floating” content – content unmoored to specific writing theory or practice – resulted in a lack of cohesion, a common thread absent throughout the course design that students could discern or use as a guide or passport. (pp. 87-88)
In other words, regardless of how good a teacher might be, if the FYC curriculum doesn’t supply students with writing-relevant content and with a theory for organizing that content as it relates to understanding and responding to varied writing contexts, students are unlikely to apply their FYC experience to writing in subsequent courses and extracurricular contexts.
In the Teaching for Transfer (TFT) design, students learn key terms central to analyzing, practicing, and theorizing writing (e.g., genre, audience, rhetorical situation, etc.) and develop their own theories of writing. Reflection also plays a key role in students’ theory-building processes. While not all students in the TFT FYC course in Yancey, Robertson, and Taczak’s study engaged in mindful transfer from FYC to their subsequent writing contexts, two of the three case study students “kept building their theory of writing, then, connecting key terms and concepts to one another and layering in new concepts as they learned them” and “they became increasingly sophisticated at articulating and practicing their theory of writing” (p. 99). The curriculum’s grounding in writing’s key terms helped students build ways of thinking about and practices for engaging with future writing contexts.
Writing across Contexts offers a helpful framework for discussing how a FYC curriculum grounded in writing content can help students assemble and remix writing knowledge in ways that promote transfer to other writing contexts. Additionally, the authors share sample course policies and syllabi, major assignments, and semester schedules for the Teaching for Transfer design in the book’s appendices.
Yancey, Kathleen B., Liane Robertson, and Kara Taczak. 2014. Writing across Contexts: Transfer, Composition, and Sites of Writing. Boulder, CO: Utah State UP.
