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Teachers in writing studies programs have long had theoretical disagreements about the content of first‐year composition—particularly about the subject matter of assigned readings and the consequent design of writing assignments. Recently a theoretical approach known as “writing about writing” or “teaching for transfer” has been increasingly influential for teachers of first‐year composition. Grounded in the work of scholars such as Kathleen Blake Yancy, Doug Downs, Elizabeth Wardle, Linda Adler‐Kassner, and many others, this movement makes writing studies itself the subject matter of first‐year composition. Courses typically guide students to think metacognitively about key threshold concepts in rhetoric/composition—concepts that illuminate how and why writing practices vary from discipline to discipline or across the spectrum from academic writing to professional writing to popular culture writing (newspapers, magazines, web genres, social media, and so forth). The goal of this approach is to promote transfer of learning from first‐year composition into a wide variety of writing situations that students will encounter in the future. In the third edition of Engaging Ideas, the influence of writing about writing can be felt in many of our chapter revisions, especially in our treatment of undergraduate research in chapter 10 and in our increased attention to genres and discourse communities throughout. The influence is also revealed in our attention to reflective writing, as explained in the next section.