I've been dealing with the lack of content in FYComp for quite a while
now, and I agree that it is a central problem. Any content you mandate
is clearly mandated by the instructor, and arbitrary to a certain extent
(ok, maybe to a lot of extent). Students know this, and they are frankly
resistant. But FYComp seems centrally inportant to me for the following
reasons:
* For many undergraduates, it's the only course where they're dealing
with a small number of people, who they actually get to know. As such,
it serves a MAJOR acclimatizing role within the university.
* FYComp provides an avenue where people can learn about discourse
communities in general, and the discourse communities of the university
in particular. It provides a venue for us to make explicit some of the
teacit assumptions of other disciplines, other professors. It's a way to
say, "Hey! This isn't high school!" in very tangible ways.
I'm not sure FYComp is the best place to accomplish those objectives --
but I think they're important ones. If those of us south of the border
abolished FYComp, we'd need to come up with some way to answer those
objectives in another way.
Marcy
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Marcy Bauman
Writing Program, University of Michigan-Dearborn
4901 Evergreen Rd, Dearborn, MI 48128
fax: 313-593-5552
http://www.umd.umich.edu/~marcyb
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