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How can a college administrator defend small class sizes in introductory writing courses?

There are three main warrants: policy, research, practice.

Policy. For decades, the National Council of Teachers of English and the Conference on College Composition and Communication have recommended a cap of 20 students for regular composition and 15 for basic writing. See “Teaching composition: A position statement,”College English 46.6 (1984), 612–614; and “Statement of principles and standards for the postsecondary teaching of writing,”College Composition and Communication 40.3 (1989), 329–336, also available online.

Research. Trish Roberts-Miller, at the University of Texas, has a fine essay, “Class Size in College Writing Courses,” that locates the problems and promises in defending small class size through research findings. She also provides a bibliography of 18 items, with some commentary. The most extensive bibliography on class-size and the teaching of writing at the college level is in CompPile. Entering “class-size” into the Search Terms field (without the quotes but with the hyphen) will locate around 150 cites.

Practice may provide the most persuasive argument. The following list of enrollment caps in first-year writing courses was begun in 1998 by Greg Glau, at Arizona State University. The majority of items were submitted in January, 2004 through the Writing Program Administration listserv. Deany M. Cheramie provided some twenty more in March, 2004, and Emily Isaacs as many in June, 2004. Thanks to everybody.

RHH