Writing across Contexts: Transfer, Composition, and the Sites of Writing

Writing across Contexts: Transfer, Composition, and the Sites of Writing by Kathleen Blake Yancey, Liane Robertson, and Kara Taczak. Logan: Utah State UP, 2014. 191 pp.

In Writing across Contexts, Kathleen Blake Yancey, Liane Robertson, and Kara Taczak illustrate the complexity of writing knowledge transfer and invite readers to fundamentally rethink their assumptions about how well first-year writing curricula support students' transfer of writing expertise across contexts. The emphasis on composition curricula in relation to writing transfer is precisely what makes this book useful to TETYC readers. The role played by the content of composition in the transfer of writing knowledge has remained largely unexplored until now; Writing across Contexts seeks to fill this gap by exploring the efficacy of what the authors call a Teaching for Transfer (TFT) course designed specifically to foster writing transfer. Underpinning the TFT curriculum is the premise that the use of writing-specific core concepts and reflection as a tool for thinking about writing enables students to conceptualize their own framework of writing knowledge and practice, which they can then carry over beyond the context of the composition classroom.

The TFT course the authors propose...