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“College faculties are made up of departments that all have high priority work to do, and there has been little common ground.” (Bullock et al 94) The tendency of academic disciplines to develop specialized and pre-professional concerns has worked against basic writing instruction. The stirring of interest within English for graduate study in composition could be helpful if the result is higher status for practitioners concerned with significant learning problems. Literature has dominated English, yet there is valuable research and practical training for which English faculty would be well suited. But if the result is more erudite dissertations and a narrowing of the subject, the profession will have asserted its own interests over the needs of learners.
By contrast, a strong development in postsecondary writing instruction has been the organization of comprehensive writing programs that, unlike traditional curricula, are set up horizontally rather than vertically. They draw faculty and students across disciplines, involve support services and practice labs as well as courses, and concern themselves with generic writing occasions rather than with literary study. They are usually related to an institution-wide requirement, rather than a prerequisite for the English department – even though they may be administered by English faculty. “The course at the University of Southern California, supported by a small FIPSE grant for training teaching assistants, is one prominent example.” (Atwell 64)
The recently formed Council of Writing Program Administrators represents this fresh approach, particularly in their emphasis on practical considerations of program management. At least implicitly they are a challenge to the usual kinds of status and influence in higher education. It may be relevant that morale is higher at Conference on College Composition and Communication meetings than at the Modern Language Association meetings, especially among younger faculty. (Petraglia 131) There is a new interest in team managed programs and research, which is a departure from the deep-seated individualism of the humanities. The comprehensive program structure is also in keeping with the renewed interest in general education.
At the high school level and earlier, teacher preparation is being addressed in imaginative ways. Some approaches could be a model for postsecondary instruction, thus reversing the usual situation. Best known is the Bay Area Writing Project, now being adapted nationally with NEH support, which proceeds from the assumption that teachers’ own greater ease in writing will improve instruction. This compelling hypothesis should be evaluated.
