Critiquing Source Use as Retrofit: Access, Agency, and Discourse Practice in the First Year Composition Classroom

Abstract

“Critiquing Source Use as Retrofit: Access, Agency, and Discourse Practice in the First Year Composition Classroom” is a study of how first year writing students understand rhetorical source use and their struggles with learning to use academic discourse conventions as they write with sources in academic research papers. First Year Composition classes seek to help students enculturate into academic discourse communities, and source use is a prominent aspect of academic discourse (Porter; Bartholomae; Howard & Jamieson). Unfortunately, students rely on retrofit source use heuristics like the “source sandwich” rather than rhetorical strategies that are more nuanced and contextualized positionings of the source-text. While students must learn how to appropriately summarize, paraphrase, and quote with proper attribution, these simplified heuristics act as retrofits that merely seem to provide access to academic discourse structures. Disability studies, which critiques structures and assumptions about access, offers a way to refine our understanding of source use instruction, while multilingual and antiracist writing pedagogies offer practical suggestions for how to center students’ right to their own language in meaningful ways. By using these approaches to think through instructional practices, we can help students develop confidence in their writing and to position FYC as a pathway for deeper access, rather than a barred gate to further learning. “Critiquing Source Use as Retrofit” investigates how students think about and experience themselves as writers who use sources after completing a First Year Composition class. This thesis uses a small set of interview-based case studies to provide insight into the often difficult-to-perceive rhetorical and disciplinary growth in students’ writing and source use. In particular, by highlighting discrepancies between students’ intentions and evaluations of their own writing, this thesis offers instructors new insights into students’ source-based writing processes. Bringing together questions of source use instruction, discourse and student language, and access and universal design, “Critiquing Source Use as Retrofit” argues for a more inclusive and accessible introduction to FYC.