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The piece addresses questions and critiques, explains why engaging students with writing studies research supports learning transfer, and applies threshold concepts to refine how the field names its knowledge for novice writers. It distinguishes the broad goal from instructors’ varied approaches, argues for professionalized preparation of teachers, and revises earlier positions using the evolving “writing-about-writing” curricula.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/composition-forum-27-reflecting-back-and-looking-forward/598577/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/composition-forum-27-reflecting-back-and-looking-forward/598577.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"A glass of water","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What central argument do Wardle and Downs revisit from 2007?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"First-year writing should directly improve students’ understanding of writing, rhetoric, language, and literacy by teaching writing studies as scholarly inquiry in courses oriented to reading and writing.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How do they connect their approach to learning transfer?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"They argue that engaging students with research and ideas from writing studies helps build declarative and procedural knowledge, which improves learning transfer.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why do they emphasize the role of prepared teachers?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"They contend that teaching writing-studies content requires trained teachers and that this professional preparation cannot be treated as an afterthought or replaced with low-paid, last-minute hiring.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},598577,1792295793,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":34,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},962090760832,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","CF 27: Reflecting Back and Looking Forward by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs Page 1 of 7  \nComposition Forum 27, Spring 2013 [http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/](http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/)  \nReflecting Back and Looking Forward: Revisiting“Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions” Five Years On  \n [[http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=compforum](http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=compforum)]  \nElizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs  \nAbstract: In this Retrospective, we revisit our 2007 College Composition and Communication article in order to clarify our primary argument, address some questions and critiques that have arisen, and consider anew the value of composition courses that study writing. We review our core argument that engaging students with the research and ideas of writing studies, building declarative and procedural knowledge of writing, improves learning transfer. Now, using the example of Jan Meyer and Ray Land’s notion of threshold concepts, we argue for the field to better name its knowledge and conceptions and to decide what portion is suitable for first-year students. We clarify the distinction between this broad underlying goal and our personal approaches to accomplishing it, emphasizing the diversity of approaches that have come to embody the study of writing in first-year composition. While maintaining that writing studies lacks recognition of itself as a field and of the value of its specialized knowledge to writing instruction, we revise our original argument to show how writing instructors from other fields and with other expertise can build familiarity with writing studies research without extensive, specialized study. Ultimately, we continue to advocate teaching our field’s knowledge in first-year composition, while expanding our sense both of how to prepare instructors to do so and of the value of such teaching.  \nIn 2007, we published an article in College Composition and Communication ( CCC) that said, in essence, that writing studies is a field with declarative knowledge, and we need to be directly teaching that knowledge in our first-year composition courses. We argued that, since we know there is no such thing as a one-course writing inoculation, we should stop implicitly or explicitly agreeing that one or two composition courses could “teach students to write.” Instead we should publicly argue for composition courses that are entry points to writing in college, courses which teach students about writing and how to learn what they will need to discover to tackle each new and different writing task and situation. Teaching conceptions of writing that align with our field’s research (starting with,“there is no one class that will make you a ‘good writer’”) has real writerly consequences: students feel they can control their writing lives (rather than being victims of shifting writing rules inexplicably imposed by authorities), understand what is happening when they encounter a challenging rhetorical situation, and know a variety of strategies for responding and learning how to respond. In addition, a course that teaches writing studies content requires prepared and trained teachers—preparation and training that cannot be demanded of low-paid, disrespected, last-minute hires. In short, a course that teaches writing studies content should improve awareness of what the field is and does, and increase the professionalized standing of those who teach in it, raising the likelihood of improved student learning outcomes. (These learning outcomes might consist of“better”writing, rather than “good” writing, since writing studies research tends to deny the existence of any such construct as a monolithic and homogenous “good writing.”)  \n[http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/reflecting-back.php](http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/reflecting-back.php)  \nCF 27: Reflecting Back and Looking Forward by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs Page 2 of 7  \nBased on both furthe","cbCaiqQYO4omxAGj","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqQYO4omxAGj","pdf",40014,"English","# Abstract\n# 2007 Argument and the “WAW” Turn\n## Outcomes and practices\n## Teaching writing studies knowledge","[{\"question\":\"What central argument do Wardle and Downs revisit from 2007?\",\"answer\":\"First-year writing should directly improve students’ understanding of writing, rhetoric, language, and literacy by teaching writing studies as scholarly inquiry in courses oriented to reading and writing.\"},{\"question\":\"How do they connect their approach to learning transfer?\",\"answer\":\"They argue that engaging students with research and ideas from writing studies helps build declarative and procedural knowledge, which improves learning transfer.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do they emphasize the role of prepared teachers?\",\"answer\":\"They contend that teaching writing-studies content requires trained teachers and that this professional preparation cannot be treated as an afterthought or replaced with low-paid, last-minute hiring.\"}]","Composition Forum 27 - Reflecting Back and Looking Forward | PDF",1792087190,11]