College Composition and Communication Dec 2025

Writing Transfer beyond FYC

Ryan P. Shepherd

Abstract

This article seeks to present a model of critical factors that influence writing transfer by exploring and extending conversations happening in the field. The article identifies five critical and interconnected factors that support writing transfer: connection, perception, reflection, disposition, and fortification. These factors emerge from an integration of writing transfer scholarship and data from a longitudinal study of student writers. In that study, six participants were followed for seven years (from first-year composition past graduation and into the workforce) and asked to explain their experiences and perceptions of writing. I offer these five factors to spark a broader conversation about how multiple overlapping influences contribute to writing transfer and to encourage further research into how these factors interact and reinforce one another.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2025-12-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc2025772268
Open Access
Closed
Topics
first-year composition transfer empirical research multimodality multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (14)

  1. Rounsaville et al. (2022)
    Relationality in the Transfer of Writing Knowledge
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Yancey et al. (2019)
    The Teaching for Transfer Curriculum: The Role of Concurrent Transfer and Insid…
    College Composition and Communication
  3. Shepherd (2018)
    Digital Writing, Multimodality, and Learning Transfer: Crafting Connections bet…
    Computers and Composition
  4. Baird et al. (2017)
    How Students Perceive Transitions: Dispositions and Transfer in Internships
    College Composition and Communication
  5. Alexander et al. (2016)
    Adaptive Remediation and the Facilitation of Transfer in Multiliteracy Center C…
    Computers and Composition
Show all 14 →
  1. Anson (2016)
    The Pop Warner Chronicles: A Case Study in Contextual Adaptation and the Transf…
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Blythe et al. (2016)
    Coordination and Transfer across the Metagenre of Secondary Research
    College Composition and Communication
  3. DePalma et al. (2015)
    A Bag Full of Snakes: Negotiating the Challenges of Multimodal Composition
    Computers and Composition
  4. Depalma (2015)
    Tracing Transfer across Media: Investigating Writers’ Perceptions of Cross-Cont…
    College Composition and Communication
  5. Reiff et al. (2011)
    Tracing Discursive Resources: How Students Use Prior Genre Knowledge to Negotia…
    Written Communication
  6. James (2008)
    The Influence of Perceptions of Task Similarity/Difference on Learning Transfer…
    Written Communication
  7. Downs et al. (2007)
    Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions:
    College Composition and Communication
  8. Yancey (2004)
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    College Composition and Communication
  9. McCarthy (1987)
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Also cites 5 works outside this index ↓
  1. Clark (2011)
    Genre Awareness, Academic Argument, and Transferability
    The WAC Journal  ↗
  2. Perkins (2012)
    Knowledge to Go: A Motivational and Dispositional View of Transfer
    Educational Psychologist  ↗
  3. Salomon (1989)
    Rocky Roads to Transfer: Rethinking Mechanism of a Neglected Phenomenon
    Educational Psychologist  ↗
  4. Shipka (2011)
    Toward a Composition Made Whole
     ↗
  5. Yancey (2014)
    Writing across Contexts: Transfer, Composition, and Sites of Writing
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network →

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