Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1989

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Curriculum and Instruction

Major Professor

Mark Christiansen

Committee Members

J. Estill Alexander, Theodore Hipple, John Ray

Abstract

Writing is used in most courses in a college curriculum. Freshman composition is generally the formal vehicle for the teaching of writing on a college campus. In light of recent Writing-Across-the-Curriculum research, many faculty members believe that writing is not the sole responsibility of the English department. At the same time, many faculty members do not know what is taught in freshman composition or are not satisfied with the quality of student writing.

The purpose of this study was to make a descriptive analysis of the roles and goals of freshman composition at five small private colleges in Southern Appalachia, and in addition, to make an analysis of the perceptions of the role, goals, desired goals, outcomes, and general opinions of freshman composition of faculty members in six academic divisions at the five institutions. Data were to be analyzed to investigate possible differences in stated roles and goals; possible differences among chairpersons and faculty members at the five institutions; and possible differences among faculty in the six academic divisions represented.

Five English chairpersons were first interviewed to determine the stated purposes and goals of the freshman composition programs in order to construct a questionnaire for non-English-teaching faculty at the five institutions. Chairpersons completed the questionnaire as did 109 faculty members. Simple statistical techniques in the form of frequency iv and percentage distribution were used to analyze, interpret, and describe the data.

The results showed that faculty members had an accurate idea of the role and goals of their freshman composition programs, with the exception of the addition of goals such as spelling and vocabulary improvement, which were not goals of some of the freshman composition programs which followed a writing-as-process approach. A concern on the part of some chairpersons and of faculty for grammatical and mechanical correctness was obvious, with the exception of one institution with a WAC program. Three institutions reported having WAC programs, although a large number of faculty members at two of these institutions did not think a significant amount of writing occurred on their campus.

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