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Composition research consistently demonstrates that the social context of writing determines the majority of conventions any writer must observe. Still, most universities organize the required first-year composition course as if there were an intuitive set of general writing "skills" usable across academic and work-world settings.

In College Writing and Beyond: A New Framework for University Writing Instruction, Anne Beaufort reports on a longitudinal study comparing one student’s experience in FYC, in history, in engineering, and in his post-college writing. Her data illuminate the struggle of college students to transfer what they learn about "general writing" from one context to another. Her findings suggest ultimately not that we must abolish FYC, but that we must go beyond even genre theory in reconceiving it.

Accordingly, Beaufort would argue that the FYC course should abandon its hope to teach a sort of general academic discourse, and instead should systematically teach strategies of responding to contextual elements that impinge on the writing situation. Her data urge attention to issues of learning transfer, and to developmentally sound linkages in writing instruction within and across disciplines. Beaufort advocates special attention to discourse community theory, for its power to help students perceive and understand the context of writing.

As the twenty-first century’s third decade approaches, popular music study has achieved greater scope, depth, and prominence in academic departments of music conservatories than ever before. Musicology, music theory, and music education scholars have recognized the significant role and influence of popular music in contemporary society, and also in their own lives, utilizing their personal insights to broaden disciplinary boundaries while more directly addressing the needs for musical understanding in the communities they serve.

This book is a collection of essays originally presented at Ann Arbor Symposium IV, Teaching and Learning Popular Music, at the University of Michigan. Organized into four sections of similar-themed writings, the essays trace numerous discourses, principles, methods, and prospects for popular music education in academia. Additionally, the book contains several features that are useful for modern-day scholars and their institutions. First, it acknowledges the gradual liquidation of traditional disciplinary boundaries, signaling the likely future dominance of interdisciplinary research and collaborations. Second, it values international perspectives of music teaching and learning. Third, the selected topics, methodologies, and predictions provide a working agenda for the future development and success of popular music teaching and learning.
 

In the years since the first edition of Controversies in Second Language Writing was published, there been little to no clear resolution of the controversies Casanave so accessibly and fair-mindedly laid out. In fact, many of them have become far more complex and intertwined with many other 21st century issues that teachers of L2 writing cannot help but be affected by in their classrooms. Therefore, this second edition has set out to address: What issues if any have been resolved? What issues have had lasting power from the past, either because people are resistant to change or because the issues continue to be unresolved ones that writing teachers and scholars need to keep discussing?

The second edition is a thorough revision with all chapters updated to refer to works written since the first edition was published. A few chapters have been added: one devoted to writing in a digital era (Chapter 3); one devoted to the debates about English as a lingua franca, "translingual literacy practices," and other hybrid uses of English that have been ongoing in the last ten years (Chapter 4); and one giving special attention to issues related to writing from sources and plagiarism (Chapter 6).

As with the first edition, the second edition of Controversies is not a book that will teach readers how to do things. Rather, it is a book designed to help readers think and to wrestle with issues in L2 writing that are not easily resolved by how-to prescriptions.