Intractable Writing Program Problems - A Profile of the University of Central Florida’s First-Year Composition Program

Oct 15, 2026

The article examines an entrenched challenge in first-year composition programs: aligning macro-level Writing Studies disciplinary knowledge with micro-level classroom practices is centrally important yet exceptionally difficult. Drawing on experience across public and private institutions, it profiles how the University of Central Florida addresses the problem through a vertical writing education structure and highlights efforts that reduce reliance on contingent labor while expanding support resources beyond first-year composition.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Macro knowledge vs. micro classroom practice

Labor conditions and staffing challenges

Course outcomes and measuring improvement

Vertical writing education structures

CF 27: Intractable Writing Program Problems by Elizabeth Wardle Page 1 of 16 Composition Forum 27, Spring 2013 [http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/](http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/) Intractable Writing Program Problems, Kairos, and Writing about Writing: A Profile of the University of Central Florida’s First-Year Composition Program [[http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=compforum](http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=compforum)] Elizabeth Wardle Abstract: At three different institutions, public and private, in varying roles, I have found the very particular problem of how to inform micro-level classroom practices with macro-level disciplinary knowledge to be centrally important to our field’s development and our students’ learning—and singularly difficult to overcome. In this program profile, I outline how we have worked (and are still working) to overcome this problem at the University of Central Florida and describe some of our successes in reducing reliance on contingent labor and gaining support and resources for the elements of a vertical writing education (writing center, WAC program, minor, and certificate) beyond first-year composition. First-year composition programs, both large and small (but particularly large), have long faced a seemingly intractable set of problems. In my experience as both a writing program administrator (WPA) and writing program researcher, I have seen those problems play out this way: Macro-level knowledge and resolutions from the larger field of Writing Studies are frequently unable to inform the micro-level of individual composition classes, largely because of our field’s infamous labor problems. In other words, composition curricula and programs often struggle to act out of the knowledge of the field—not because we don’t know how to do so, but because we are often caught in a cycle of having to hire part-time instructors at the last minute for very little pay and asking those teachers (who often don’t have degrees in Rhetoric and Composition) to begin teaching a course within a week or two. Often these courses are far larger than the class size suggested by NCTE, likely because of the high cost oflowering class size and of widespread misconceptions about what writing is (a “basic skill”) and what writing classes do (“fix” writing problems) . In addition, composition courses continue to be housed largely in English departments, where they tend to get the least attention and funding of all the low-funded English programs and where sometimes faculty with little interest in or training to teach writing are nonetheless required to do so. Sometimes entire composition programs are staffed with brand new graduate students, many if not most of whom are graduate students in fields other than Rhetoric and Composition, and who have taken, at most, one graduate course in how to teach writing before walking into a classroom. Contrast this situation with any course taught in any other field, and the difference is stark: no administrator would ever send untrained faculty members or graduate students from another discipline to staff an entire segment of courses in, say, biology or history or mathematics or economics. Yet this happens every day in composition programs. Because of these and other entrenched practices, locations, and labor conditions {1} [\#note1], and despite our field’s advances in how best to teach writing, we can still find composition classrooms where the students are learning modes or grammar or literature in formalistic ways, or are learning popular culture with little to no attention to writing itself, in courses sometimes if not frequently taught by faculty or graduate students with little to no training (or even interest) in teaching writing. [http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/ucf.php](http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/ucf.php) CF 27: Intractable Writing Program Problems by Elizabeth Wardle Page 2 of 16 The fact that rese

FAQs

What core problem does the article focus on in first-year composition programs?

It focuses on the difficulty of informing micro-level classroom practices with macro-level disciplinary knowledge from Writing Studies, despite its importance for student learning and the field’s development.

How do labor conditions affect composition programs according to the text?

Composition programs often rely on last-minute part-time instructors with limited training in rhetoric and composition, and this staffing approach contributes to persistent teaching and learning challenges.

Why are composition outcomes and improvement described as difficult to define or achieve?

The field does not consistently agree on appropriate first-year outcomes, and writing development is not necessarily linear or fast. Measurement tools may also be unreliable or invalid.

Oct 15, 2026

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