First-Year University Writing ― A Corpus-Based Study With Implications for Pedagogy

First-Year Writing offers a rare corpus-based analysis of writing by incoming college students compared with expert academic writing. Based on repeating rhetorical and linguistic features in over 19,000 student essays, the research analyses specific discourse features in first-year writing that do not match expectations of more advanced academic arguments. The book goes on to demonstrate how these findings can be used to better connect writing and language in pedagogy and assessment, showing how to use language-level insights to improve students' awareness and writing.

Laura Aull is an Assistant Professor of English and Linguistics at Wake Forest University, USA. Her research focuses on corpus linguistic and rhetorical genre approaches to academic writing. Her work is featured in Composition and Rhetoric and Applied Linguistic journals including Written Communication, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Corpora, Composition Forum, and College Composition and Communication.