English 6625 (Teaching Composition: Theory and Practice) offers graduate students a background in the the major theories and practices that continue to shape best practices in the teaching of writing at the college level.

Can you remember exactly when you learned to write? or how? Or can you remember the major moments in your personal writing development? My guess is that you cannot. You can probably locate teachers that stand out for you, or even specific writing assignments or experiences that you particularly enjoyed or felt proud of. But you've probably never been asked think about how you learned to write. You just did. Sometime.

English 6625 focuses on the complex and mysterious concept of "teaching writing." Some argue that writing cannot be taught at all; others disagree. Regardless, in some way, most people who live in the United States learn to write in English. In this course, we'll explore some of the major theoretical concepts that have sought to explain what writing is, how it is done, how we learn to do it or don't, and what any of this nebulous business might look like in a classroom setting.