The WAC Journal

Situated in the literature on threshold concepts and transfer of prior knowledge in WAC/WID and composition studies, with particular emphasis on the scholarship of writing across difference, our article explores the possibility of re-envisioning the role of the composition classroom within the broader literacy ecology of colleges and universities largely comprised of students from socioeconomically and ethno- linguistically underrepresented communities. We recount the pilot of a composi- tion course prompting students to examine their own prior and other literacy values and practices, then transfer that growing meta-awareness to the critical acquisition of academic discourse. Our analysis of students’ self-assessment memos reveals that students apply certain threshold concepts to acquire critical agency as academic writ- ers, and in a manner consistent with Guerra’s concept of transcultural repositioning. We further consider the role collective rubric development plays as a critical incident facilitating transcultural repositioning.

So I’ve been toying with the idea of just going with groups of four and then I would have all the groups in both sections being the same size. So is that better or is it better to do an experiment where I’ve got one set in groups of three and one set with groups of four? Then, would they somehow be unhappy if, you know, if you were in one section and you were in a group of three but you could have been in the other section and been in a group of four?\n—Food Science Professor\nThese questions were posed by a food science professor who incorporates group assignments and laboratories into her courses in order for students to learn disciplinary content and to prepare them for professional practice...

Rebecca Nowacek (2011) observes that “scholarship on transfer in the field of rheto-ric and composition has understandably focused on first year composition: what knowledge and abilities transfer out of, and less commonly, into FYC ” (p. 99). There is consensus in this research that all too often students fail to transfer skills learned in their first-year composition courses to other writing contexts across the curric-ulum. There is also consensus that composition instructors wishing to encourage transfer should focus on metacognitive awareness of writing processes; understand-ing of key writing studies concepts like rhetorical situation, genre, and discourse community; and making explicit connections to students ’ future college and pro-fessional reading and writing tasks (Beaufort, 2007; Bergmann & Zepernick, 2007; Clark & Hernandez, 2011; Fishman & Reiff, 2008; Wardle, 2007). What scholars have focused less attention on is how these lessons learned from the research on transfer and first-year composition might inform the design not just of first-year composi-tion courses, but of university writing across the curriculum (WAC) efforts, from a student’s first year to his or her final semester. With the exception of Anne Beaufort (2007) and David Smit (2004), even researchers who have studied courses across disciplines have focused their advice not on the structural design of campus WAC programs, but on what individual instructors can do to encourage transfer (Caroll,

ment workshop gone awry. A session on responding to student work—meant to introduce the commenting philosophies fundamental to writing studies—became derailed when faculty failed to accept the orthodoxy of deemphasizing grammar and sentence-level concerns in favor of global issues, such as content development, elaboration, and arrangement. As Cole notes, such conflicts between writing studies’ principles and the beliefs of faculty in the disciplines are common. Cole responds to the issue pragmatically, reasoning that we will ultimately have greater success in persuading disciplinary faculty of our writing across the curricu-lum / writing in the disciplines (WAC/WID) philosophies if we make some effort to address what they see as the most pressing concerns with student writing. To this end, he provides a list created by faculty on his campus of ten “things ” university students should know about writing—a list he hopes will be revised as needed, over the years, and accepted by all faculty at his institution. He ends with a call to bring “discussions of grammar pedagogy out of the margins, and reconsider how grammar instruction might be optimally reintegrated into our classrooms.”

internal study: a way of understanding the causes and conditions for a WAC program's origins and reproduction, mutations and adaptations, endangerment, or extinction.Moving from taxonomy to evolutionary theory follows a historical pattern.Evolutionary theory represented the next scientific step beyond taxonomy for advancing our understanding of the natural world.Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linn), author of Systema Naturae, 1735, is credited with establishing hierarchical structures for classifying organisms according to their physical traits and their methods of reproduction.His taxonomy relied on visible, observable characteristics.In the late eighteenth century, Cuvier's functional taxonomy superseded Linnaeus's descriptive taxonomy (Foucault 268).In contrast to the externally visible traits emphasized in Linnaeus's taxonomy, Cuvier was beginning to theorize internal causes and conditions that could account for differences and disruptions."From Cuvier forward, " Foucault argues, "it is life in its non-perceptible purely functional aspect that provides the basis for the exterior possibility of a classification" (268).Classification is still useful for Cuvier, but he shifts the categories from highly specific traits to very general principles.In his emphasis on function, Cuvier thus helps lay the ground for Charles Darwin's theory that species formation depends on the natural selection of traits that help an organism adapt to its environment and reproduce successfully. 1 Darwin's theory of natural selection relies on environmental conditions, mutations, and change.His famous finches adapted to different environmental niches on the Galapagos, with the most relevant factor being the type of available food.In a different place, adaptive coloration may have led Darwin to study predatory/prey relationships.The point remains: if a particular mutation lines up with an environmental niche and gives an organism a reproductive advantage in terms of a food source, protective coloration, or something else it can productively exploit, that trait gets passed along to subsequent generations and eventually a new species is formed.WAC also speciates by adapting to its local environment.Evolutionary metaphors help explain and explore patterns, interrelationships, and the conditions under which a program can thrive.The metaphor can also help us understand that not all mutations are adaptive or successful, and that certain conditions threaten a program's survival.Evolutionary and ecological metaphors are, of course, not new to WAC discussions or to more general discussions of writing practices.In 1986, Marilyn Cooper argued for "The Ecology of Writing, " where writers are part of a varied and inherently dynamic system.Rather than paying attention to individual writers and their immediate contexts, Cooper asks us to attend to the ways in which, "all the characteristics of any individual writer or piece of writing both determine and are determined by the characteristics of all the other writers and writings in the system" (368).For Cooper, contextual models serve a taxonomic function; she notes, for instance,The WAC Journal 24 (2013).