Writing Across the Curriculum Defined

Writing across the curriculum may be defined...as a comprehensive program that transforms the curriculum, encouraging writing to learn and learning to write in all disciplines. Before discussing the possible components of such programs, it is worth reemphasizing the basic assumptions of WAC:
that writing and thinking are closely allied, that learning to write well involves learning particular discourse conventions, and that, therefore, writing belongs in the entire curriculum, not just in a course offered by the English department. There is also an implicit assumption that WAC is a faculty-driven phenomenon, involving changes in teaching methods; WAC assumes that students learn better in an active rather than a passive (lecture) mode, that learning is not only solitary but also a collaborative social phenomenon, that writing improves when critiqued by peers and then rewritten. Faculty must see these as important and useful ways of teaching before they will institute them in their own classrooms; they will never be convinced by having WAC imposed on them in fact, experience suggests that they will usually do their best to resist it. (McLeod, Susan, and Margot Soven.  "WAC:  An Introduction."  Writing Across the Curricululm:  A Guide to Developing Programs.  1992.  Published on the web July 17, 2000. 4.)

The following are resources for Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and Writing in the Disciplines (WID). (under construction)

• The WAC Clearinghouse 
   
• The WAC Journal 
  
  
• Writing Across the Curriculum:  An Introduction (Purdue Online Writing Center)
  
  
• Across the Disciplines: A Journal of Language, Learning, and Academic Writing
  
  
• Genre Across Borders: an international, interdisciplinary network of researchers, theories, and resources 
  Genre is a concept and construct that crosses disciplinary, national, methodological, conceptual, and pedagogical borders. The aim of "Genre across Borders" (GXB) is to advance genre theory and research by helping scholars and students cross these borders.
  
  
• Writing Across the Curriculum and in the Disciplines (San Francisco State University)
  
  
• WAC:  Selected Bibliography.  Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) at Hofstra
  
  
• McLeod, Susan, and Margot Soven.  Writing Across the Curricululm:  A Guide to Developing Programs.  1992.  Published on the web July 17, 2000. 

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