ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the basic tenets of a mindfulness pedagogy for composition and situates it within current discussions of contemplative practices and general benefits of mindfulness for learning in higher education. The tendency is toward mindlessness—not mindfulness—in the field of composition. Writing instruction is one of the main perpetrators of trained mindlessness in people’s lives. For instance, in the United States, an ostensible learning outcome in two national writing policies, the 2011 “Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing” and the 2015 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) “Principles for the Postsecondary Teaching of Writing,” is the development of metacognition in first-year writing students. However, that metacognition is cast as a matter of retrospection, which reduces openness of perception and the ability to recognize variances in possible information. The omission of present-moment awareness in conventional writing instruction carries short- and long-term negative consequences for students, including writing apprehension and writer’s blocks. In contrast, a mindfulness practice for composition enhances student understanding of writing struggle by demonstrating how intentional, sustained awareness of the present can lead to fluency and ease.
