2. Start with writing (yours):
Think briefly about two different things you’ve written in the
last week. Then, write (for yourself) responses to some
questions:
• What did you need to know to do a good job with these
things?
• Where did you learn these things you needed to know?
• What helped you learn them?
• What made it harder for you to learn them?
(About 8 minutes to respond to these questions)
3. Threshold Concepts (Meyer and Land)
• Concepts that are gateways for epistemological
participation within disciplines.
• TCs are:
• Liminal – learners move toward and through them
• Transformative – shift learners’ perspectives on the world
• Troublesome – lead learners to question previous perspectives and
ways of understanding in initially uncomfortable ways
• Irreversible – once learners participate, it’s not really possible to
reverse
• Reconstitutive – once learners participate, they understand
themselves in relationship to disciplines, other spheres differently
4. Threshold concepts of composition as a
discipline
• Writing is a subject of study as well as an activity (/noun and verb)
• Writing (and language) is situated within and shaped by specific contexts, purposes, and
audiences
• Writing (and language) is never neutral; in all contexts, uses of writing (/language) are
linked to values and ideologies. For this reason, writing can never be separated from the
writer and her/his context,
• background, experiences, etc., nor can it be separated from the culture/context where it
circulates.
• Writing (and language) is always situated in genre and genre is shaped by and reflects
contexts, values, and ideologies
• Qualities of good writing are site-specific; these qualities reflect and are shaped by the
values and ideologies of the sites where those qualities are defined and embraced
• Participation in writing (and language) is a form of social activity/action
5. Threshold concepts of writing in
instruction
• Qualities of good writing are context-specific – there is no such thing as
“general skills writing”
• Writing development is recursive
• Writing performance involves cultural analysis and participation and
cognitive ability
• Writers develop through experience, reflection on experience, feedback,
and revision
• Metacognition – knowing how one knows – is central to writing development
• Writing development involves analysis and application of strategies involved
with prior knowledge (rather than 1:1 application of prior knowledge)
6. Knowledge capability
(Baillie, Bowden, and Meyer)
• The ability to situate understandings of “appropriateness”
– appropriate knowledge, actions, activities – within the
values of the communities shaping what appropriateness
means
• Cultivating and demonstrating skills associated with
“appropriateness” in those communities
• Making informed judgments based on understanding of
appropriateness and values regarding use of skills.
• Knowledge capability is associated with the
development of capacity to participate in threshold
concepts.
7. Outcomes for Writing 2 at UCSB
OUTCOMES
All Writing 2 classes focus on developing students’ abilities in rhetorical analysis, writing, inquiry, reflection
and editing. Students who successfully complete Writing 2 will:
Rhetorical Analysis
• Analyze conventions and concepts of genres within academic disciplines and outside of the university.
• Apply rhetorical concerns (audience, purpose, context) to a range of reading and writing assignments. For
Writing 2E there will be an emphasis on the rhetorical demands of communicating in engineering and
technical fields.
Writing, Research, Revision and Reflection
• Use a process involving drafting, revision, and editing to develop writing.
• Use processes of inquiry and research to develop and explore questions relevant in academic contexts.
• Apply strategies for locating, evaluating, and incorporating electronic, textual and/or ethnographically-based
sources to explore questions relevant in academic contexts.
• Engage evidence from sources for academic audiences to support and develop ideas in writing.
• Paraphrase, summarize, and/or quote scholarly sources to engage academic audiences.
• Reflect on and describe strategies used for writing, reading and research across contexts
• Practice academic honesty within academic contexts.
• Identify and use the conventions of at least one citation system.
Editing Processes
• Understand and use conventions of grammar, diction, syntax and mechanics in academic contexts.
• Apply usage conventions to academic contexts to produce clear and effective writing.
8. Structure for Writing 2
In a 10 week quarter:
Three major writing projects (WPs)
During the process of drafting WPs (over about a 3-week
period), students:
• Complete at least two short, brainstorming/drafting
assignments for feedback from the instructor (“project
builders”, or PBs)
• Read and provide feedback on one another’s drafts
At the end of the term, students revise 2/3 drafts for a final
course portfolio worth between 45-60 percent of their
course grade
9. WP1…
Goals:
• Immerse students in study of genre and convention in familiar
and/or accessible contexts.
• Foster students’ abilities to identify genres (and texts included
in them); analyze texts within genres; identify
similarities/differences among conventions; consider
relationships between
genres, conventions, purposes, audiences, and contexts
• Example: Choose a topic; identify two genres that include texts
discussing that topic and two texts within each genre. Analyze
the conventions of each set of texts (thus, each genre) and
discuss how they appeal to different purposes, audiences, and
contexts.
10. WP2…
Goals:
• Move from analysis of more familiar genres (and contexts)
to less familiar ones/apply knowledge capabilities
developed in WP1 to analysis of genres in less familiar
context
• Begin to situate conventions within contexts (in our
case, academic conventions/contexts)
11. WP2 examples
Identify a question in which you’re interested and two
academic disciplines in which you’re also interested. Find
texts (usually two) in this discipline/about the topic and
analyze how questions are framed, what kind of evidence
is used, and how analysis is represented in these
disciplines.
Choose another class in which you’re enrolled. Gather data
from texts from the class (syllabus, assignments, exams);
interviews (with the faculty member and/or Tas); and
observation (of the class) to answer the question: What are
appropriate literacy practices in this class and how do you
know?
12. WP3…
Goals:
• Apply capacities with TCs – specifically, analyzing ideas about
writing in specific contexts
• Reflect on/articulate what they’ve learned
Example:
• Reflect on what you’ve learned <about writing in a context,
writing in context, writing across contexts>.
• Create a genre that conveys this to a specific audience for
whom this is relevant
• Analyze your work. Audience? Purpose? Genre? Conventions?
How did you choose what to include and exclude?
Frequently multigenre, multi-modal, “remix” projects with written,
analytic reflections.