TheyCan Take It With Them: Fueling Our Fires to Teach for Writing Transfer - By James E. Warren and Karen Otto

Sep 30, 2026

Composition research highlights knowledge transfer: applying writing knowledge learned in one setting to produce effective work in another. The authors address Texas STAAR writing testing, where rigid formulas and exam-focused prompts can reward performance yet fail to support success in later grades and beyond. They propose STAAR preparation grounded in analyzing a rhetorical situation and adapting writing accordingly, helping teachers prepare students for tests while sustaining rhetorical instruction and transfer-oriented teaching.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time9 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract and framing problem

Knowledge transfer in writing instruction

STAAR writing tests and teacher dilemma

Proposed approach: rhetorical situation adaptation

TheyCan Take It With Them: Fueling Our Fires to Teach for Writing Transfer By James E. Warren and Karen Otto James E. Warren teaches in the Department of English at the University of Texas at Arlington. He can be reached at [jewarren@uta.edu](jewarren@uta.edu). Karen Otto teaches at Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas. She can be reached at [karen.otto@southlakecarroll.edu](karen.otto@southlakecarroll.edu). Abstract: Composition researchers have become increasingly concerned with the issue of knowledge transfer: the use of knowledge and skills learned in one setting to complete tasks in a different setting. In terms of writing-related knowledge transfer, research suggests that rigid rules and formulas for writing do not transfer as successfully as flexible strategies. Teachers in Texas confront a dilemma in that STAAR writing tests seem to encourage formulaic writing that may be effective for the exam but that is unlikely to help students succeed on writing tasks they encounter in later educational stages and beyond. One technique that has been found to increase transfer is to teach students how to analyze a rhetorical situation and adapt their writing accordingly. The authors propose an approach to STAAR test preparation that combines knowledge of the rhetorical situation with practical advice for how to pass the test. This approach promises to help teachers meet their obligations to prepare students for STAAR tests without abandoning their commitment to rhetorical instruction. Keywords: knowledge transfer, rhetorical situation, STAAR test, rhetoric, composition When Donald Graves (2001) studied “energy drain” among teachers nearly 20 years ago, he identified teachers’ belief that their work makes no difference asa primary culprit. Graves found that when “teacher judgment is continually bypassed by legislatures, state department of education, and local administrators” in favor of curricula and assessments“that have little to do with lasting learning,” the result is “significant energy loss” (p. 3) . For those of us who teach writing, nothing drains our energy more than realizing at the end of a long school year that our students are writing no better than they were at the beginning. Even ifour students have improved at formulaic writing tasks, we wonder if what they have learned will be useful in later grades, or in college, or in their lives outside school. For English language arts (ELA) teachers in Texas, no tool could be better designed to sap our energy to teach writing than the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) writing tests, administered at the end of grades four and seven and English I and II. We neither develop nor score these writing tests, despite the unequivocal statement by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) (2014) that “best assessment practice is undertaken in response to local goals, not external pressure” (“Guiding Principles for Assessment,” 1B) . Far worse, most of us are deeply skeptical of writing exams that ask students to answer multiplechoice questions about how they would revise or edit a piece of writing they did not produce. We are hardly more reassured by a composition section that allows students 26 lines with the not-so- English in Texas | Volume 48.1 | Spring/Summer 2018 | A Journal of the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts 31 subtle directive that “STUDENTS MAY NOT WRITE OUTSIDE THE BOX”(Texas Education Agency, 2012) . The STAAR represents the highest of high-stakes testing of our students’ writing, and these tests may not be going away anytime soon.1 Obviously we cannot ignore them. We have an obligation to prepare our students to succeed on them, but is it possible to prepare students for the STAAR writing tests without abandoning best practices for the teaching of writing? We believe it is. In this article, we describe an approach to test preparation that is envelopedin a broader pedagogy focused on writin

FAQs

What is knowledge transfer in the context of writing education?

Knowledge transfer is using writing-related knowledge and skills learned in one setting to complete tasks in a different setting.

Why do the authors question STAAR writing test practices?

They argue that rigid rules and formulaic writing encouraged by the exams may produce short-term exam success while limiting students’ ability to succeed later.

What technique do the authors recommend to increase writing transfer?

Teach students to analyze a rhetorical situation and adapt their writing accordingly, integrating this into STAAR test preparation.

Sep 30, 2026

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