Advocates the application of writing-across-the-curriculum type assignments in mass communication and journalism courses. Offers an overview of transactional and expressive writing assignments used in such courses. (SR)

This paper describes how freshman composition teachers can provide students with tools for integrating different classes and navigating the university experience by introducing students to discourse community theory and viewing freshman composition as a foundation for Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC). It begins by describing how discourse…

Pupils need variety in their writing experiences, and social studies writing involves writing across the curriculum as well as stressing positive attitudes and feelings of the learner. Subject matter should come from the pupil, and diverse learning opportunities should assist the pupil in acquiring the relevant facts, concepts, and main ideas…

Argues that writing about physics forces students to come to grips with the material and with what they do and do not understand. Describes the use of writing in an introductory course. Discusses benefits of a decentralized "writing across the curriculum" program. (JRH)

A writing across the curriculum coordinator considers it part of her job to help faculty assist students to write better. She reminds faculty that she is available to do workshops for teaching assistants, to help design sequenced assignments, and to meet with students to set up effective peer response groups. A sociology professor sought her out…

Content area teachers interested in using writing to learn activities need to be well informed about the learning promoted by certain writing tasks before assigning them. Writing assignments should not be thoughtlessly and arbitrarily assigned with the expectation that learning, somewhat miraculously or mysteriously, will occur. Although writing…

This interactive panel discussion paper by three educators focuses on the design and evaluation process of writing assignments in two American History survey courses at Idaho State University. The paper states that both approaches used--student-centered, and authentic writing to communicate--offer two different perspectives on using…

Provides language arts teachers with specific techniques to help content-area teachers get more writing into their classrooms. Suggests that some of these techniques might be helpful to language arts teachers themselves, especially in getting students to think about learning. (TB)

Suggests that developmental writing courses that emphasize transactional writing with assignments directly related to general education courses increase the motivation of students to take the developmental writing assignments seriously, realize that writing skills contribute to academic success, and transfer these writing skills to the written…

This paper explains why a comprehensive Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) program at the author/educator's university, the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP), would encounter strong opposition. The paper first points out that the author, as the director of the University's Writing Center, has tried for 7 years to make a WAC program…

The contact zones in teaching writing are connected in multiple ways. A principal concern is how students learn to write for the disciplines, but the focus is the relationship between composition specialists and their colleagues throughout the disciplines. In the early days of writing across the curriculum (WAC), writing was seen primarily as a…

Although faculty response to an introductory writing across the curriculum workshop at La Salle University (Pennsylvania) was almost uniformly positive, responses to an advanced workshop were mixed. La Salle's basic workshop is framed by the two dimensions which remain the major theoretical concerns of writing across the curriculum: the function…

Examines whether writing activities promote learning and thinking in elementary and secondary social studies students. Describes writing activities that teachers have used to draw on existing student knowledge, consolidate and review new information, and reformulate and extend knowledge. Concludes that writing activities benefit student learning…

English or rhetoric and composition faculty must work to collapse disciplinary boundaries in their institutions. The challenge facing English departments is to collapse the "we-they" mentality, to develop productive partnerships with other departments, and to develop a healthy respect for other disciplines. At Yavapai College in Arizona,…

Discusses three types of journals: (1) writer's journals, which encourage recording of events for later literary work; (2) learning logs, which encourage interaction with curriculum content; and (3) diaries, which allow free flow of emotions and ideas. For each type, student samples and teacher comments are provided. (BC)