The purpose of this article is to examine the development of discussion over the problem of effectiveness of university first-year composition(FYC) education and the proposed alternative education method in USA. A study on the means of FYC education in the context of university began in USA since 1970s, and discussion over effectiveness of FYC education took place in earnest since the mid-1990s. Discussion centered on (1) the problem whether knowledge and skills students learned through FYC education transfer when writing in other contexts, (2) the problem of how to reconstruct the educational contents of FYC when not fully transferred. The alternative FYC education methods that make effective transfer possible were actively proposed since 2000s. In this article, the most notable ‘Writing About Writing(WAW)’ education and ‘Genre Awareness(GA)’ education were examined. WAW education replaces content area of FYC course with subjects of writing studies field. It is to increase self-awareness in writing of students by matching knowledge of writing with practice. On the other hand, GA education aims to develop ‘Genre Awareness’ through metacognitive understanding of genre. This helps students adjust to the genre when encountering unfamiliar genre in new context. Now a search for transferable FYC education content has begun also in our FYC education field. In this situation, the example of a search for direction in USA provides helpful reference point. We need to absorb achievement of WAW education and GA education through various classroom experiments suited to our education field.