Reading Reading in First-Year College Composition

First-year composition (FYC) courses are a backbone of undergraduate instruction, with nearly every institution of higher education requiring a version of the course. The majority of FYC courses assign reading, especially the reading of contemporary essays, for students to respond to in their own writing. However, a common concern among compositionists who focus on reading is that composition studies as a whole does not, and has not, focused enough on reading theories and pedagogies in FYC. Using a method of close reading and analyses, and borrowing from post-qualitative research the idea of reflexivity, this study examines texts in composition studies and adjacent fields, published primarily from the mid-20th century to the present, to explore how reading is, and has been, understood in relationship to writing and composition. Further, this study explores pedagogical and theoretical consequences of the “place” of reading in FYC. It ultimately contends that the marginalization of reading in composition studies as well as FYC limits both the pedagogical and reading possibilities of this universally required course