Some students consider their first college English classes to be tedious rites of passage. Programs at Marquette and at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee are working to change that.

"We're trying to send (freshmen) off as people who have a voice in society," said Krista Ratcliffe, director of Marquette's three-year-old first-year English program.

To that end, the first-year English program is structured so students can learn to write in society and a university setting, Ratcliffe said. English 001 targets academic writing and students must write an exposition, an analysis, a critique and an argument.

English 002 students learn to write for society by studying media literacy, narratives and civic-oriented literature. The unit also includes public speaking.

The program at UWM takes a non-traditional approach, according to Bruce Horner, director of composition for UWM.

While the Marquette program is divided into units on different topics, the UWM program builds upon previous lessons throughout a semester.

Students buy texts for English 101 and 102, but they also read their peers' essays and discuss the content, Horner said.

The program "is more of a workshop," according to Lisa Salamon, an English 101 instructor at UWM and former teaching assistant at Marquette.

Grades are based on a portfolio of the students' work, assignment completion and a teacher assessment.

Although the course objectives must be followed, Marquette teaching assistants — who instruct nearly all of the English 001 and 002 classes — can decide how they teach the class. However, Ratcliffe said TAs have sufficient supervision to ensure they are teaching the right material.

UWM TAs do not have the same freedom. Horner said first-time teachers are given assignments, a syllabus and course guide they must follow. In their second semester, TAs may choose the assignments.

To prepare for teaching, all first-time TAs at Marquette must attend a two-week orientation and a graduate English course on writing theory to ensure they will be familiar with the material taught.

"(Students) aren't getting some ignorant student teaching their English class," said Jake Stratman, an English 001 TA in his first year of teaching at Marquette.

Stratman said first-year TAs have a practicum with Ratcliffe on Wednesdays to discuss teaching strategies and difficulties.

All TAs can attend a Friday workshop run by Meg Muthupandiyan, assistant director of First-Year English.

UWM has similar training procedures. First-time instructors go to a weeklong orientation session and take a graduate course on teaching English.

Some TAs at Marquette said they liked the university's English program.

"I've taught at places where there's no coherence," said Susan Stafinbil, an English 002 TA. "There's a lot of uniformity here."

Salamon said she considered both programs "great" and "far-reaching."

Ratcliffe said the university has assessed First-Year English faculty and students and read several hundred student essays to gauge how much the students learned.

"For the past two years, we've had really good results," Ratcliffe said.

Horner said he considers his UWM program a success, although a study about the program has not been completed.

Students "are doing more reading and more research," Horner said, than before the program was implemented.