Nelson, Eric D. "Oh Tempura! Oh Morays! Non-Writing Faculty in the First-Year Writing Classroom." Composition Chronicle 11.2 (1998): 7-9

A classicist relates his experience in teaching first year writing to the issues involved in administering Freshman Development Programs. Development programs draw from a wide variety of faculty, but many non-English faculty are inexperienced in teaching composition. A series of workshops and seminars may help these faculty acquire a practical background in pedagogical techniques and theoretical underpinnings.

Nelson, Jane and Cynthia A. Wambeam. "Moving Computers into the Writing Center: The Path to Least Resistance." Computers and Composition 12 (1995): 135-143.

Nelson and Wambeam summarize their experience at the University of Wyoming in setting up a computer writing classroom and an online writing lab. They encourage writing centers to take a leadership role in collaborative projects to incorporate computers in the classroom, and also to avoid marginalization in their institutions. One benefit of online writing labs, they argue, is that more students, including part-time , disabled , or site-bound students, can use the services of the writing center.

Norgaard, Rolf. "Writing in Disciplinary 'Contact Zones': Redrawing the Connection Between Expertise and Community" Paper presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, March 23, 1995.

Traditional approaches to WAC incorporate accommodation to a "culture of expertise," in which the writing serves to socialize students to the culture of a discipline rather than to challenge the rhetorical burden of that discipline. Because disciplines can be seen as distinctive cultures, it is appropriate to use the term "contact zone" to describe the space where two disciplines meet. Writing in these zones encourages "interface discourse," discourse among experts whose expertise may not completely overlap (i.e. mathematicians and engineers). Incorporating this sort of writing has several implications for the relationship between expertise and community, as well as for the understanding of how knowledge is constructed.

Parker, Robert. "The 'Language Across the Curriculum' Movement: A Brief Overview and Bibliography." College Composition and Communication 36.2 (1985): 173-177.

Presents history of LAC movement--the use of all forms of language in various disciplines in K-12 classrooms. Points out that in US the focus is exclusively on writing (as in the WAC movement).

Parks, Steve and Eli Goldblatt. "Writing beyond the Curriculum: Fostering New Collaborations in Literacy." College English 62.5 (2000): 584-606.

Although WAC programs have played an important role in shifting university emphasis toward student learning, WAC needs to to look beyond the academy in order to help students and faculty see reading and writing in a wider social and political context than the college curriculum. The Institute for the Study of Literature, Literacy, and Culture at Temple University is an example of one WAC program that looks beyond the immediate institutional context. Through institutional cooperation with community resources (both educational and business), WAC has the potential to expand community awareness of the importance of literacy.

Press, Harriet Baylor. "Basic Motivation for Basic Skills: The Interdependent Approach to Interdisciplinary Writing." College English 41.3 (November 1979): 310-

Press explains the need for "interdependent" freshman composition courses that would coordinate the efforts of composition instructors with those of professors in a specific discipline's introductory course. She suggests that readings for the composition course would complement the material being taught in the other discipline, and that occasional classes should be team-taught.

Raimes, Ann. "Writing and Learning Across the Curriculum: The Experience of a Faculty Seminar." College English 41.7 (March 1980): 797-801.

Raimes recounts her experience at Hunter College where they did a faculty workshop on writing during the semester. This multidisciplinary seminar was paid for by grants releasing each faculty participant from one teaching course. But by taking it simultaneously to teaching other courses, the workshop became a practicum, using materials for and from the other classes being taught that semester. Her main suggestion is to move away from personal writing as soon as possible in writing courses, and focus on academic essays by bringing the curriculum into the writing classes.

Raines, Helon Howell. "Is There a Writing Program in This College? Two Hundred and Thirty-Six Two-Year Schools Respond." College Composition and Communication 41.2 (May 1990): 151-163.

Raines wants to challenge the myths about 2-year community and junior colleges, so she surveys the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges to determine what kinds of writing programs exist in these schools. She found no evident pattern; in fact it's rare that these schools have separate writing programs. Instead, most writing courses are "service" courses. Few have WAC programs of any sort, but several have writing labs.

Roen, Duane, and Stuart C. Brown, eds. Course By Course: Taking Writing Across the Disciplines.Unpublished manuscript from University of Arizona.

Chapters in this manuscript describe the uses of writing in a variety of disciplines at the University of Arizona, apparently in the mid-1980's. Interviews with faculty, descriptions of assignments, connections to relevant literature included.

Rose, Mike. "When Faculty Talk About Writing." College English 41.3 (November 1979): 272-279.

Rose recounts the results of UCLA's 1979 local writing conference. 96 faculty and staff participated in the workshop, which focused on the kinds of writing problems encountered in student writing, and the kinds of responses they made. Most agreedthat the key problems in writing were thesis, argument, evidence and organization, and most also agreed that writing shouldn't be the sole responsibility of the English department. To improve writing, Rose argues we should offer professional reward for writing research and instruction, develop new curricula, and design new evaluation schema.

Russell, David R. "The Cooperation Movement: Language Across the Curriculum and Mass Education, 1900-1930." Research in the Teaching of English 23.4 (Dec.1989): 399-423.

Describes the history of the Cooperation Movement, amovement in the early 1900's to encourage faculty in many disciplines to include language instruction in their curricula. Relates the CooperationMovement to other curricular reforms of the time, including the division of education into separate disciplines. Describes the decline of the movement,and its relation to the WAC movement.

Russell, David R. "Writing Across the Curriculum and the Communications Movement: Some Lessons from the Past." College Composition andCommunication 38.2 (May 1987): 184-194.

Describes the history of 2 earlywriting programs: one at Colgate 1949-1961, and the other at UC Berkeley 1950-1965. Notes similarities between these programs and many current WACprograms, in their views of writing and its place in instruction in alldisciplines. Argues that these programs failed to overcome obstacles that WACprograms today face: resistance by faculty in other departments to teachwriting, and their preference for research and graduate training overundergrad teaching. Discusses how these attitude problems might be overcome.

Russell, David R. "Writing Across the Curriculum in Historical Perspective: Toward a Social Interpretation." College English 52.1 (January 1990): 52-73.

Russell begins with the premise that literacy instruction, or a lack of it, has social consequences, and proceeds to describe the history of WAC programs to place it in historical perspective and assess its significance for advanced literacy. He argues that cross-curricular writing has never permanently changed academia because it resists the "compartmentalization of knowledge" which is the fundamental organizing principal of academia, and because it upsets the usual method of regulating access to certain social strata by suggesting there can't be a single gateway to learn writing.

Scheffler, Judith A. "Composition with Content: An Interdisciplinary Approach." College Composition and Communication 31 (February 1980): 51-57.

Scheffler explains how the Freshman Interdisciplinary Studies Program at Temple University works. The program takes place over the summer, offers both freshman composition and remedial writing courses, and links each writing course to a specific interdisciplinary academic course. Benefits include linking reading and writing skills for students, and collaborative teaching for faculty.

Segal, Judy et. al. "The Researcher as Missionary: Problems with Rhetoric and Reform in the Disciplines." CCC 50.1 (1998): 71-90.

WAC research has started to study rhetoric and genre in non-academic settings. Reporting back to those discourse communities, however, can take on the tone that the researcher is more qualified to discuss practices than the practitioner. For a practitioner in a non-academic setting, language is a transparent medium for content; for the rhetorician, though, language is something to look at in order to see assumptions about what is and what isn't important. WAC researchers need to show sensitivity to the practitioners' disciplinary expertise by collaborating or cooperating with the community being studied, by concentrating on problems deemed significant by that community, and by joining their conversations.

Sipple, Jo-Ann M. "A Planning Process for Building Writing-across-the-Curriculum Programs to Last." Journal of Higher Education 60.4 (1989): 444-455.

Outlines strategies for making a WAC program last: develop a forum (e.g., a writing board) to talk about WAC; articulate the theoretical underpinningsof the program; define goals and develop means to reach those goals; includeresearch in the program; decide where the program should live; document theplanning process.

Smith, Leonora H., and Jeffrey Charnley. "Project Write Source Book." Writing Assignments from Faculty of the College of Agriculture andNatural Resources, Michigan State University. 1990.

A collection of effective writing assignments from a variety of disciplines at MSU andelsewhere. Includes short write-to-learn assignments, opportunities for professional writing, and applied writing.

Smith, Louise Z. "Why English Departments Should 'House' Writing Across the Curriculum." College English 50.4 (April1988): 390-395.

Argues thatEnglish departments should house WAC programs. After all, why should English departments hide their expertise in writing of all sorts? And English folks know how to analyze texts of all sorts. For a contrary view, see CatherinePastore Blair's article in College English.

Sokal, Alan. "A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies." Lingua Franca. May/June 1996. 62-64.

Sokal confesses that his article "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity," which appeared in Social Text, was a parody. He indicates that the degree of unverified claims and assumptions should have indicated that the article was "liberally salted with nonsense," even though it conformed to the conventions of academic discourse and the ideology of the journal. Sokal points to several reasons for his parody, including the desire to show the dearth of critical reasoning in general, and the particular problem of denying the practicality of an external reality in favor of a reality made up of social constructs. This denial of any external reality is, Sokal claims, a result of the arrogance of postmodern literary theorists who apply theory to areas in which they have no expertise in order to put forth political agendas. Sokal does not take issue with the political agendas themselves, but with an academic subculture that ignores or disdains reasoned criticism.

Soven, Margot. "The Advanced Writing Across the Curriculum Workshop: The Perils of Reintroducing Rhetoric." Journal of Teaching Writing 12.2 (1994): 277-86.

Soven summarizes the difference in content between basic and advanced WAC workshops, and explains why the basic workshops are so well-received and the advanced workshops less so. She suggests that by focusing on the theoretical relationship between writing and critical thinking, the advanced WAC workshops pose more of a challenge to traditional writing assignments. The advanced workshops focus more on the use of exploratory discourse as a way to show that writing has different purposes and requires different critical thinking skills.

Soven, Margot. "Beyond the First Workshop: What Else Can You Do to Help Faculty?" New Directions for Teaching and Learning 36 (1988): 13-20.

Briefly summarizes history of WAC movement 1977-1987. Describes potential second stage WAC programs to follow-up initial WAC workshops, including new, more theoretical workshops, collaboration between English and other departments, co-authoring interdisciplinary in-house texts and newsletters, and increasing student involvement by training undergraduate writing tutors.

Swanson-Owens, Deborah. "Identifying Natural Sources of Resistance: A Case Study of Implementing Writing Across the Curriculum." Research in the Teachingof English 20.1 (Feb. 1986): 69-97.

Case studies of two high school teachers and their resistance to incorporating more writing assignments and write-to-learn assignments in their curriculum. Author develops a model of a"curricular system of meaning" that includes knowledge, materials/activities,teacher, and students. Identifies components of the meaning system that can produce resistance to change in curriculum.

Thaiss, Chris. "Writing Across the Curriculum: The State of the Art." The Quarterly of the National Writing Project and the Center for theStudy of Writing 14-17.

Author's responses to questions about WAC programs in general: WAC program structures and activities, curriculum supporting WAC, evaluation procedures, uses for federal funding.

Tighe, M. A., and S. M. Koziol, Jr. "Practices in the Teaching of Writing by Teachers of English, Social Studies, and Science." English Education 14 (May 1982): 76-85.

This article summarizes a survey the authors took of several 7th-12th grade English, Social Studies, and Science teachers to gather information about what kinds of writing activities each uses in his or her classroom. Most teachers saw a need for cross-curricular coordination in teaching writing, but didn't see any move in that direction occuring in their school systems, and didn't feel qualified to lead such activity. Tighe and Koziol conclude that there is a need to continue training teachers to teach writing, andthat they need to be encouraged to use more prewriting and more expressive writing activities.

Townsend, Martha A. "Integrating WAC into General Education: An Assessment Case Study" WAC and Program Assessment: Diversit Methods of Evaluating Writing Across the Curriculum Programs. Eds. Brian Huot and Kathleen Lake. Forthcoming.

General education reforms often result in writing across the curriculum initiatives, but some campuses already have WAC programs. This article documents the assessment process undergone by the Campus Writing Program at University of Missouri-Columbia in its efforts to see how it should be best integrated into the new general education program. A breakdown of the assessment process, including the internal and external review processes, is presented as an example of "fourth generation evaluation," a "hermeneutic dialogue" in which conclusions are not necessarily as important as uncovering concerns of stakeholders. Townsend offers concluding insights, however, in how the existing WAC program can serve as an institutional resource for developing general education.

Waldo, Mark L. "The Last Best Place for Writing Across the Curriculum: The Writing Center." WPA: Writing Program Administration 16.3 (Spring 1993): 15-26.

Argues (in the discussion with Catherine Blair and Louise Smith ) that aWAC program should be "housed" in a writing center. Reasons: Writing Centers provide a defined place for experts in WAC. The Writing Center promotes dialogue between disciplines. And it's a rhetorically neutral place where the dialogue can take place, not a disciplinary space with its own rhetoric.

Walker, Kristin. "The Debate over Generalist and Specialist Tutors: Genre Theory's Contributions." TheWriting Center Journal 18.2 (1998): 27-46.

Genre theory can help resolve some aspects of the debate on whether tutors ought to be familiar with discipline-specific discourse conventions. Genre theory's focus upon the social processes involved in communication allows writing centers to train tutors to act as guides for students seeking to initiate themselves into the discourse of specific disciplines. Tutors can learn aspects of the discourse conventions and culture of other disciplines, and can study models of different genres in order to see how the conventions become realized. Argues that tutor training should involve interviews with specialists in various disciplines in order to learn what that particular discipline values.

Welsh, Nancy."Playing with Reality: Writing Centers after the Mirror Stage." College Composition and Communication 51.1 (1999): 51-69.

Lacan's notion of the mirror stage, in which idealized visions of the self clash with movements that upset those visions, provides a focus for understanding the gap between the ways in which writing centers understand their work and the rest of the academy sees that work. Object-relations theory, though, provides a more useful way of visualizing the work of the writing center. In the Lacanian model, academic language is both outside and other, so writing centers are pressured to "get on" with the task of helping the student adapt to her identity as a writer in this type of discourse. In the object-relations model, writing centers are able to use the tutorial time as a place for students to play, to form their own identities as writers in response to assignments and expectations.

Weiss, Robert, and Michael Peich. "Faculty Attitude Change in a Cross-Disciplinary Writing Workshop." College Composition and Communication 31 (1980): 33-41.

Describes activities of a 5-day workshop on writing andwriting instruction. Workshop engaged faculty in the acts of writing,revising, peer critique, rather than simply talking about these activities. Activities emphasized the process of writing, and the importance of assignments that carefully define audience.

Weiss, Robert H. "Writing in the Total Curriculum: A Program for Cross-Disciplinary Cooperation."Eight Approaches to Teaching Composition. Eds. Timothy R. Donovan and Ben W. McClelland. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1980.133-149.

Describes the ideal (English department) composition course for a WACprogram. Discusses what a WAC program could do to support faculty in various disciplines use writing in their courses, whether the faculty member is awriting conservative or a writing liberal. Suggests that faculty should be encouraged to use write-to-learn exercises.

Young, Art. "The Wonder of Writing Across the Curriculum." Language and Learning Across the Disciplines 1.1 (1994):58-71.

Young indicates that his experience in WAC has enabled him to remain focused on teaching. After briefly surveying the history of WAC programs and summarizing some obstacles to these programs, Young shows how his involvement as a "WAC man" surfaces in the assignments he gives to his Victorian lit class.

Young, Art and Toby Fulwiler. "The Enemies of Writing Across the Curriculum." Programs that Work. Ed. Fulwiler, Toby, and Art Young. Portsmith, NH: Boynton/Cook. 1990. 287-295.

While WAC programs contribute to better academic environments, they face certain threats, mostly based on their status as an "adjunct" program. Some of these "enemies" include uncertain leadership as a result of not having full faculty status, the orthodoxy of the English department in its failure to recognize rhetoric as an area of English department scholarship, the practice of compartmentalized academic administration in the resistence to cross-disciplinary programs, the traditional reward system based upon research instead of teaching, the practice of machine testing and quantification, and entrenched attitudes that perceive writing programs both as a threat to prevailing pedagogical practices and an easy response to pressures demanding pedagogical reform.


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