Back to the Future: Instructional Practices and Discourse Values    

When I think of writing-across-the curriculum—especially when asked to look toward the future, I am drawn to looking back to my initial involvement in WAC in the mid-1970's.

Herrington, Anne J. LLAD (1997). Articles>Language>Writing Across the Curriculum

Coming to Grips with Theory: College Students' Use of Theoretical Explanation in Writing About History    

This is an exploratory study of reading and writing within a particular discipline. It is also an investigation of critical thinking and an examination of engagement and resistance in using language to learn about new concepts. I looked at how college history students wrestled with and sometimes worked around issues of theory, specifically theories of the causes of the Civil War. Using analysis of think-aloud protocols, I investigated how students comprehended theoretical writing about the Civil War and how they used the theoretical material to take a position in writing about these same issues. My main purpose in this article is to examine the cognitive moves students make, their ways of thinking, when working with theory, an activity which many educators today are touting as particularly important in developing students’ critical thinking abilities. I am especially interested in the stances students take toward their subject matter which promote critical reasoning, that is, which lead to engagement, as well as approaches which circumvent or stand in the way of such thinking, that is, which lead to resistance.

Durst, Russel K. LLAD (1994). Articles>Writing>History

Design, Results, and Analysis Assessment Components Nine-Course Program    

The case for assessment of college writing programs no longer needs to be made. Although none of us would have chosen the words, we all have come to accept the truth of Roger Debreceny’s words: the 'free ride' for America’s colleges and universities is indeed over (1). All writing programs face difficulties in selecting the means for the most effective evaluations for their individual programs. Key concerns include how appropriately, practically, and cost effectively various assessment tools address this problem.

Carson, J. Stanton, Patricia G. Wojahn, John R. Hayes and Thomas A. Marshall. LLAD (2003). Articles>Education>Writing>Assessment

Evaluating Training Workshops in a Writing Across the Curriculum Program: Method and Analysis    

Program directors could use data from protocols and interviews to identify 'natural sources of resistance', and 'translation and follow-up problems'.

Blakeslee, Ann M., John R. Hayes and Richard Young. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing>Assessment

Girl Talk Tales, Causal Models, and the Dissertation: Exploring the Topical Contours of Context in Sociology Talk and Text    

Since the early 1980s, composition studies has arrived at a broad consensus that it is important to understand how social contexts relate to the cognitive processes and individual behaviors involved in writing and reading texts, although within this broad consensus are various notions of context and of how contexts relate to processes and texts. Drawing on both structuralist and everyday accounts of discourse and society, composition theory and research have generally conceptualized the contexts of writing in terms of abstract, unified constructs. Whether defined globally (culture, language, history, discourse community, genre, ideological state apparatus) or locally (institutional setting, communicative situation, task demand), context has typically been construed as a static, unified given, something that both frames and governs literate activity.

Prior, Paul. LLAD (1994). Articles>Rhetoric>History

Greater than the Sum of Parts: A Poetry/Science Collaboration    

Collaborations between disciplines in middle school usually occur between language arts and social studies, or between math and science; however, we found a collaboration between language arts and science to be a fruitful experience for our students in their learning both disciplines and in improving our own teaching.

Abrams, Nancy and Nadine Feiler. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

Introducing Engineering Students to Intellectual Teamwork: The Teaching and Practice of Peer Feedback in the Professional Communication Classroom    

A rich discussion of collaboration as integral to writing in academia and the workplace has been on-going for some time among writing instructors and researchers. The outcomes of this discussion have convinced some writing instructors to promote peer feedback as one of the forms of collaborative writing in the classroom. In this paper we report on the preliminary stages of a longitudinal study of the role and place of peer feedback in the development of students' writing.

Artemeva, Natasha and Susan Logie. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Engineering>Collaboration

Introduction: Four Carrots and a Stick  

We must understand that if we graduate engineering students who have a full complement of communication skills, we will better prepare them to be more effective professionals as well as highly valued citizens. Clear communcation and clear thinking are mutually reinforcing. Together they are a powerful combination that will serve well the individual, our nation and world in the exciting years ahead.

Dowell, Earl H. LLAD (1999). Careers>Collaboration>Professionalism>Engineering

Learning to Link Artifact and Value: The Arguments of Student Designers  

The article explores the relationship between design and rhetoric. From the "Language and Learning Across the Disciplines" series, part of the "Writing Across the Curriculum" website at CSU.

Fleming, David. LLAD (1997). Articles>Rhetoric

Linking Communication and Software Design Courses for Professional Development in Computer Science  

Although many programs require one or more project-based course for their majors, most students never get to work with a real client on a project that will be used outside the classroom setting. We felt strongly that students would benefit more from both their communication and their software design courses if they could somehow connect their efforts across traditional curricular boundaries and work with a real audiences and purposes. And in fact, this is what we found—students understood the relationship between their technical and communication responsibilities much more fully in both classes than either of us had experienced in these same courses prior to linking them.

Williamson, William J. and Philip H. Sweany. LLAD (1999). Academic>Computing>Communication>Software

Literacy and Expertise in the Academy  

The ability to read and write are usually regarded as a birthright in this country. The transmission of reading skills to the general public has been part of the agenda for American education since the initiation of the public school movement (Cook-Gumperz; Graff; Soltow and Stevens). As a result, we regularly espouse the ideal if not the practice of teaching everyone to read, and recent educational reforms have attempted to add writing to this agenda.

Geisler, Cheryl. LLAD (1994). Articles>Education>Literacy

Messages from Josefa: Service Learning in Mexico    

The article discusses service learning in a women's natural health clinic in Josefa Dominguez, Mexico. The author also discusses how students in writing classes can learn from community service and learning.

Clark, Gloria. LLAD (2000). Academic>Education>Service Learning>International

Models in Algebra and Rhetoric: A New Approach to Integrating Writing and Mathematics in a WAC Learning Community      

This paper documents an ongoing experiment designed to integrate the teaching of college algebra and college rhetoric and writing at Montgomery College in Conroe, Texas. These are the first two college-level math and English courses that students take within the college's core curriculum. Our approach focuses on the concept of models and model building and might be easily adapted to a variety of math and writing classes. We believe we have maintained the necessary rigor of both disciplines while providing a foundation which links them.

Heckelman, Ronald J. and Will-Matthis Dunn III. LLAD (2006). Articles>Writing>Education

Mutual Support: CAC Programs and Institutional Improvement in Undergraduate Education      

Writing- and communication-across-the-curriculum programs often develop as independent initiatives focused on improving students' writing and/or speaking by incorporating these activities into coursework and helping teachers to use them more effectively in their instruction. However, there is now much anecdotal evidence of the conditions that work against the cultivation of cross-curricular programs: faculty complacency; the weakening of a program's original spirit; reduction or elimination of funding; and the continued avoidance of involvement by some programs, administrators, or faculty (see White).

Anson, Chris, Michael Carter, Deanna P. Dannels and Jon Rust. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

"Oh that wonderful stuff": Selected Poetry by College and Middle School Students    

When students use poetry to imagine and explore academic subjects, they examine the topic in new, creative ways, resulting in interesting and lively writings that stimulate thought and class discussions. The following poems are examples of student poetry written in a variety of classes throughout the curriculum. I am pleased to showcase student writing in this section, and I hope reading these poems will suggest possibilities and adaptations for teachers and students elsewhere.

Apostel, Shawn. LLAD (2002). Articles>Writing>Education

Panel Summaries Plenary Panel Processes for Thinking about WAC's Future      

Faculty often tell their students that conversations contribute to the collaborative writing process. The first plenary session was planned as a generative activity: conversations, first, among the panelists, and then involving the whole audience, to begin collaboratively writing the future on a grand scale. The result of these conversations should impact policymakers, leaders in many institutions, and legislators who control state funding.

Driskill, Linda. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

Reinventing Invention: Writing Across the Curriculum without WAC      

Work for this essay began with a problem that will sound all too familiar to most of us in higher education: It has recently dawned upon administrators and faculty in many departments across our university's curriculum that our students can't write. Or more accurately, enough of our students write poorly enough that we have cause for concern. This concern is usually expressed in the uneqresolution that something ought to be done.

Odell, Lee and Burt Swersey. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

Student Perceptions of the Value of WAC  

In a time of declining resources and expanding needs, accurate assessments of WAC program value are of great interest to administrators and faculty across the curriculum.

Hawthorne, Joan I. LLAD (1998). Academic>Education>Faculty>Writing

Using "Community" Needs to Promote and Expand WAC      

We know that many WAC initiatives start as grassroots efforts to meet local curricular needs, and that success depends on the extent to which these initiatives gain institutional support. However, as the missions of institutions change to account more fully for preparing students for their roles as citizens and workers, WAC initiatives need to be more aware of the needs of the larger community as well as the university community.

Blalock, Glenn, Susan Loudermilk, Diana Cardenas and Joyce Hawthorne. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

WAC in an Urban and Bilingual Setting: Writing-to-Learn in English y en Español      

Responding to a 1999 City University of New York (CUNY) Board of Trustees resolution mandating a five-year university-wide WAC Initiative, Hostos Community College/CUNY, an urban, bilingual community college with a predominantly Spanish-speaking, low-income student population, has established a comprehensive WAC program. The Hostos Initiative reflects the University-wide philosophy that writing ability is developed through extensive writing practice across a broad range of academic experiences at all levels of a student's academic life and draws on research which illustrates the interrelationship between language and learning (Barnes, et al., Britton, Emig, Martin et al.).

Hirsch, Linda. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

What Leadership, Goals, and Policies Can Ensure that Students Communicate Well in Multicultural Environments and International Commerce?      

The five panelists addressed this very large question from different points of view and different areas of expertise. In general, however, they endorsed, in Schneider's term, an approach to intercultural learning that supports 'a vision of civic responsibility in a diverse and still deeply unequal world.' This summary captures some of the issues raised in the discussion and suggestions for addressing these issues.

Andrews, Deborah C., Rebecca E. Burnett, Daniel Chavez, Jonathan Monroe and Neal Lane. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

What Must Be Done to Ensure That College Students Communicate Well in Their Fields?      

With the turn of a new century, it seems as though everyone has gone into the forecasting business--especially stockbrokers and academics. Our own field has marked the emerging era with a wonderful essay collection, WAC for the New Millennium (ed. McLeod, et al., NCTE 2001). In the same spirit, this panel looked to the future by reflecting on best current theory/practice (guided by the stockbrokers' caution that past performance is no guarantee of future results.) To set the stage for the discussion, the moderator briefly considered the title assigned by the conference organizers: 'What Must Be Done to Ensure That College Students Communicate Well in Their Fields?'

Youra, Steven. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing>Workplace

The Wonder of Writing Across the Curriculum    

The main reason I got involved with writing across the curriculum fifteen years ago was administrative and related to campus politics. The main reason I have stayed actively involved in writing across the curriculum for fifteen years is personal and related to my teaching. Quite simply, I am a better teacher because of writing across the curriculum. So while motivations and intentions are messy things to characterize, for me the combination of administrative and teaching responsibilities and personal and public desires have led to most of my professorial life being engaged in writing across the curriculum — in my own classroom and on my college campuses — first at Michigan Tech, and now for six years at Clemson University.

Young, Art. LLAD (1994). Articles>Rhetoric>Writing Across the Curriculum

Writing Across the Curriculum in International Contexts: An Introduction    

As is the case with the first-year composition class, we tend to think of WAC programs as an exclusively U.S. phenomenon, or at least a North American phenomenon.

McLeod, Susan H. LLAD (2001). Articles>Education>Writing Across the Curriculum>International

Writing To Learn To Do: WAC, WAW, WAW, Wow!  

I've heard lots of reasons offered for the surprising success of WAC over the last 27 years. But you know, the I think it's the acronym. WAC. Have you ever had colleagues good naturedly kid about the acronym. 'This is WACy!' There is something a little crazy about this whole thing.

Russell, David R. LLAD (1994). Articles>Education>Writing Across the Curriculum