In most US and some Canadian colleges and universities, undergraduate students take freshman or higher-level composition courses. To support the effective administration of these courses, the development of basic and applied research on the acquisition of writing skills, and an understanding of the history of the uses and transformation of writing systems and writing technologies (among many other subareas of research), over 70 American universities offer doctoral study in rhetoric and composition.[4] These programs usually include study of composition pedagogical theory, research methodologies in rhetoric and composition, and the history of rhetoric. Many composition scholars study not only the theory and practice of post-secondary writing instruction, but also the influence of different writing conventions and genres on writers' composing processes.[5] Composition scholars also publish in the fields of teaching English as a second or foreign language (TESOL) or second language writing, writing centers, and new literacies.