The Rhetoric of Academic Discourse: A Qualitative, Phenomenological Study of Students' Self-Investigation of the Acquisition of Academic Discourse in First-Year Writing Courses

Abstract

Whether at a four-year university or a two-year community college, students who choose to pursue higher education will likely be required to demonstrate their eligibility to enroll in college-level writing courses. At a vast majority of colleges and universities in the United States, such eligibility is determined through various means that include college placement tests, like AccuPlacer®, or other standardized assessments and determinants. Once students are deemed prepared or eligible to enroll in college-level writing courses, their academic journeys often include some form of the compulsory first-year English classes. These courses, also known as freshman writing or composition courses, have often been dubbed “gatekeeper” or “weed out” courses. They are perceived by some to function as courses that are just challenging enough to eliminate students who are not able to survive the demands of the fundamentals classes while retaining a smaller pool of students who can meet or exceed the standards and subsequently pass the courses. Whether they realize it or are prepared to do so, students will be required to demonstrate their ability to learn and utilize academic discourse as they matriculate through their college coursework. Numerous studies have sought to ascertain instructors’ perceptions of student readiness for college-level writing courses. This qualitative, phenomenological study seeks to ascertain students’ experiences with learning academic discourse, determine the effectiveness of the compulsory composition courses, and discover the degree to which students deem such courses offer adequate preparation for success in other college courses. This study also examines competing conceptions of academic discourse and, secondarily, seeks to establish whether students perceive the ability to write using academic discourse as a skill acquired through the completion of the first-year English course or as a prerequisite needed to pass college-level composition. Finally, this study investigates students’ views—after having completed writing courses—regarding the value and benefit, if any, of first-year writing courses and ultimately seeks to answer the question, from students’ standpoints, of whether these courses should continue to be compulsory.