Smith et al. summarize four categories of characteristics contributing to RTL: cognitive, attitudinal, behavioral, and personality/dispositional: Readiness to learn is a mix of cognitive (e.g., prior knowledge), attitudinal (e.g., enthusiasm), behavioral (e.g., effort; strategy use), and personality or dispositional (e.g., determination or drive) characteristics. As such, the literature indicates that readiness to learn is an elastic construct wherein an individual’s motivation, use of basic cognitive skills, and the use of “soft skills” that enable learning (e.g., communication, teamwork; U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy, n.d.) come into play. (177)

we have yet to fully explore if or how the content in a first-year composition class influences the writing knowledge and practice students develop in such a setting, and thus the knowledge and practice they can use in other sites of writing