Preparing for the Tipping Point: Designing Writing Programs to Meet the Needs of the Changing Population

Abstract

Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book The Tipping Point caught the attention of people in many disciplines, causing them to look at all kinds of natural and social phenomena differently. Briefly, a tipping point comes when one or more seemingly minor changes in the external environment produce a dramatic change in the existence or behavior of a few key people, a change that spreads quickly to others. Tipping points are explained mathematically as the point when a steady-state equilibrium is disrupted, followed rapidly by a chain of events that can be difficult to manage. Nationally, Americans are about to reach a tipping point in the demographics of the student population in college composition courses—in fact, many institutions of higher education have already reached such a point—and that point will have profound implications for the way writing programs are conceived, designed, and staffed. This article outlines the nature of this demographic shift and how professionals can prepare for it by using tested principles of instructional design. Then, by reviewing the information that is available on main stream composition programs, we attempt to infer the ways those programs will likely need to change to meet the needs of a rapidly changing student population. Finally, we outline issues regarding curriculum for first-year composition, materials and practices for teacher development, and writing program location—issues that we believe writing program administrators must begin to consider, debate, and decide now, if we want to be ready for the near future.