Abstract

According to current scholarship in writing studies, students with a positive affect toward writing are more likely to transfer writing knowledge and skills. Yet my findings from an IRB-approved longitudinal study suggest that this is not always the case. This study was designed to see what students transfer from their first-year composition course, focusing especially on rhetoric, process, genre, and mindfulness. In annual semi-structured interviews that took place over the course of three years, two study participants described having positive writing affect but did not discuss transfer, even when prompted. These students express caring much more about a writing task when it feels relevant to them, which frequently involves genres outside of academic writing. They also both admit that they have poor writing process habits, such as procrastination. Based on these findings, I suggest one way that writing instructors can purposefully use affect to potentially encourage transfer.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; English

Rights

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