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Writing Without Reading: The Decline of Literature in the Composition Classroom Summary

Thousands of subjects are offered in our colleges and universities. Of these subjects only one is so highly valued as to be universally required: freshman composition. Increasingly, composition is the one course almost every student (several million each year) will take regardless of major. For many, it will be their only course dedicated to the study of English. At the same time, many composition programs are separating from English departments, in outlook if not in administration. This survey examines a representative sample of these offerings to determine the present state of the requirement. It focuses on the role of literature in the composition curriculum, looking into the ways in which that role has diminished, and the consequences of that change.

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