Writing across Contexts: Transfer, Composition, and Sites of Writing

Acknowledgments

acK noWledgments Informed in part by a CCCC (Conference on College Composition and Communication) research grant awarded to Kathleen in 2006—“‘The Things They Carried’: A Synthesis of Research on Transfer in College Composition”—this collaboration began in 2007 when we first discussed our shared interest in researching transfer, especially through curricular design and classroom pedagogy. In 2009 Kara and Liane chose areas related to transfer for their respective dissertations at Florida State University, each directed by Kathleen, and for several years now we have continued to collaborate and share our continued transfer-related research in numerous publications and conference presentations. However, we wouldn’t have been able to complete this project without the support of those around us, and for that we’d like to thank a number of people and institutions. We owe a debt of gratitude to our FSU students, especially those who participated in the two studies we report on here, but also to the students who gave anecdotal feedback from our Teaching for Transfer (TFT) course pilot efforts and course iterations after that. They helped us understand where and how their learning was taking place. These students, many in their first semester at college, demonstrated as much commitment to learning as we have to teaching and researching, and we thank them for sharing their input and experiences. Liane and Kara wish to thank the Florida State University English Department, and the Graduate Program in Rhetoric and Composition, for their funding of our graduate studies. We are grateful for the years of support that made possible our research studies and our scholarly inquiry into the question of transfer. Thanks also to the First-Year Composition Program at FSU: to Deborah Coxwell-Teague, who helped ensure scheduling of our TFT course and who encouraged our studies; and to the graduate teaching assistants who allowed us access to their classrooms and materials so viii ACKnoWleDgMenTS we could complete our research. And thanks also to Emily Dowd and Tamara Francis for their assistance with the CCCC research grant. We also thank the colleagues who provided responses to our research— especially Kristie Fleckenstein, Linda Adler-Kassner, Ruth Outland, Jennifer O’Malley, and Jessie Moore. Likewise, we thank colleagues at the Elon University Research Seminar on “Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer”; thinking with them throughout the life of the seminar has been extraordinarily helpful. We also thank Elizabeth Wardle for her assistance with our Composition Forum article; the Conference on College Composition and Communication for its 2006–2007 research grant; and the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA) for its 2010 WPA Research Grant to Liane and Kara supporting this research. Thanks too to our current institutions for their continuing support: Florida State University, William Paterson University of New Jersey, and the University of Denver. We have shared our research at several institutions and venues, and we thank them as well: Doug Hesse and the University of Denver; Paul Anderson and Miami University of Ohio; Mary Sheridan and the University of Wyoming; Gwen Gorzelsky, Kevin Roozen, and the Qualitative Research Network; the Conference on College Composition and Communication; The Council of Writing Program Administrators; the International Writing across the Curriculum Conference; and the Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer Conference. Special thanks as well to the reviewers of this book for their readings and response, the latter of which helped shape the final manuscript, and to Michael Spooner at Utah State University Press for encouraging this project from the beginning and shepherding us through the editorial and publication processes. Not least, we thank our families, colleagues, and friends—including David Yancey, Genevieve Yancey, Sui Wong, Matthew Yancey, Kelly Yancey; Elizabeth Robertson, Douglas Robertson, Beth Robertson, Rich Robertson, Andy Colwell, and Richard Ellis; and Terry Taczak, Suzie Taczak, David Taczak, and Joey Taczak—all who continue to support us in work and in life. Wr i ting across contexts ...