| My dissertation analyzes 176 randomly sampled first-year composition course descriptions to explore lesser known facets of composition theory's relationship with freshman English-based pedagogies. In particular, my study examines the subtle presence of dominant, guiding theoretical paradigms in writing program directories. Composition scholars tend to view freshman English courses as belonging to a homogeneous institution; not many scholars have described the complex diversity of writing programs beyond citing their deficiencies as a call to scholastic reform. My project's emphasis on contextual description offers the field of composition a fuller description of its frequently overlooked mechanisms. The research for this study uses both quantitative and qualitative tools---data collection and organization involved random sampling, statistical analysis, and decoupage. My meta-analysis looks to theorists, such as Berlin, Brereton, Crowley, Dewey, Elbow, Emig, Hart, and Miller in composition, Khemlani-David and Norazit in linguistics, and Malinowski in anthropology, all of whom speak of the contextual nature of communicative acts. |
