"What is at stake when we write?" asks Lisa Ede.

Just for starters, in an institution of higher learning like UC Davis, faculty members expect students in all majors to write and read well. Once students graduate and get jobs, employers expect them to write coherently. Whether in education or the employment ranks, good writing makes a big difference in the Information Age.

So, as Ede points out, much is at stake when the issue arises of how to teach students to write better.

Ede, a professor of English at Oregon State University, visited campus Jan. 30 and presented a session, "Situating Composition: Comp-osition Studies and the Politics of Location," before about 30 faculty members and students in 126 Voorhies. The UC Davis University Writing Program sponsored this first of three sessions to be held over the winter quarter to discuss the program's future direction.

In her talk, Ede discussed the history and impact of the writing process movement and its status in the contemporary disciplinary scene. In particular, she examined recent discussions of the relationship between theory and practice in composition studies. Ede is also the director of the Center for Learning and Writing at Oregon State."What we say at the level of theory is often different than what we do at the level of practice," she said.

Ede said the field of composition "took off" in the 1970s, when society seemed frustrated by questions such as "Why Can't Johnny Read?" As a result, universities started emphasizing composition classes to students to better prepare them for writing across all disciplines.

Along the way, she said, the writing process movement grew out of psychology research that attempted to understand essentially how writers think. However, many fierce debates subsequently arose around the ideological issues involved in the writing process.

The question now, Ede said, is how to make sense of composition as an academic discipline and where to "house it in the academy."

She said that faculty members want students coming to class knowing how to write well. Thus, there's "common ground" to be found among faculty members in the sciences and engineering with those in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

In designing writing composition classes, Ede suggested that students be asked what does it mean to be a writer and what is the relationship between the language we speak and write in our home communities and the writing we do at school or on the job.

It's also important, she said, for writing instructors to talk to their students about how writers learn to function in diverse -- and sometimes conflicting -- communities. "What does it mean to have authority as a writer -- to be considered literate in a particular community -- and how do writers gain and maintain such authority?" she said. "And what can writers do if they wish to resist these conventions?"

Ede envisions her students becoming "effective, self confident and self-conscious writers." Talking a lot and working collaboratively in the writing process is a good instructional method. She described the process of becoming a writer as finding "space" in communities that may or may not share our assumptions and conventions.

Following the talk, Ede led a broad-based discussion about writing program structures, on how they are funded, who teaches in them, and where they are housed. She emphasized that there are many models in the United States for writing programs but with the professionalization of the discipline that began in the 1970s, there are increasingly autonomous programs, at least in major universities.

Formerly the Composition Program within the English department, the UC Davis University Writing Program is now poised to become an independent academic unit within the College of Letters and Science.

Since this fall, under the interim direction of Brenda Deen Schildgen, a comparative literature professor; and Gary Sue Goodman, the associate director and an English professor; the program has been functioning semi-autonomously with an advisory board composed of faculty from across the university.

Joseph Harris, a professor of English and director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Writing at Duke University, will speak from 10 a.m. to noon on Friday, Feb. 20, in 912 Sproul. Christine Farris, a professor of English and director of the composition program at Indiana University, is slated to speak toward the end of the quarter.

The series was made possible by an award from the provost's office in recognition of the writing program's engagement in the campus's strategic plan. Members of the campus community are invited to the talks. For details, contact writing-program@ucdavis.edu.