There are many common misconceptions about composition courses: It’s going to be boring! It’s nothing but grammar, spelling, and where to put commas! Comp teachers are little, old, bun-wearing spinsters! You have to be a good writer to do well in comp class! It has nothing to do with my major, so why care? It has nothing to do with my life!

Well, none of these perceptions are correct. True, if you are determined to be bored in comp class, you may well be. If you open yourself up to the ideas, however, expect your experience to be, at the very least, worthwhile. At the most, you may well have a great time.

Composition teachers are men, women, young, old, suit-wearing, and t-shirt-wearing professionals. Yes, we will ask you to learn the standard rules and regulations of the English language, but we will also ask you to think for yourself and develop your own unique voice—have an opinion and express it. If you have an idea about the way the world works and the determination to communicate that idea to others, you can do well in these courses … even if you always got bad grades in high school composition.

Composition is about more than writing. It’s about ideas, philosophy, history, psychology, politics, economics, the world. It’s about what interests you and what you can make interesting to others. In other words, composition is about your major and your life. What you learn in your two composition courses will prepare you for the next four years of college and for your working and personal life beyond this institution.

Beth Huber bhuber@email.wcu.edu
Director of First-Year Composition