Theorizing WPA expertise as problem-oriented, stakeholder-inclusive practice, we apply the twenty-first-century paradigm of transdisciplinarity to a campus WID Initiative to read and argue that data-driven research capturing transdisciplinary WPA methods in action will allow us to better understand, represent, and leverage…

This program profile describes the efforts needed to develop a new writing program at a small college. The author explores how she cultivated relations with disciplinary faculty to collaboratively redefine a "problem" into an opportunity by adopting Krista Ratcliffe's technique of rhetorical listening. She then outlines the…

The University of California has struggled for many years to build fair and workable policies and programs to develop the English literacy of its highly diverse student population. Considering past, present, and future, this essay describes how the UC's largest campus, UC Davis, with 50% of its 33,000 students L2 writers, has built a network of…

The WAC director, composition director, director of Institutional Assessment (OIA), and WAC/OIA liaison describe the programmatic "needs" and "wants" they balanced in the plan they collaboratively designed to respond to a state mandate for "value-added" writing assessment. To satisfy this mandate, as they explain,…

Writing across the curriculum (WAC) will forever be caught in the following paradox: the rise of the research university has allowed for specialization that generates writing embedded in differentiated knowledge communities. However a WAC program may characterize the overarching importance of writing, its conception can never be the same as that…

A heuristic procedure likened to strategic planning for building college-wide writing programs is described. The management and political issues that arise in building a program are discussed. (Author/MLW)

Argues that a writing-across-the-curriculum program should be designed, administered, and taught equally by all departments in a university. Stresses the importance of developing a dialogic program, with creative interaction between faculty members from various disciplines and between students and professors. (ARH)

Suggests that, because English teachers are often more knowledgeable about composition theory and pedagogy, English departments should house writing-across-the-curriculum programs. (ARH)

Writing across the curriculum (WAC) programs had their genesis in grass-roots efforts to promote attention to writing in all disciplinary areas. At first based on generic faculty-development activities with little regard to systemic and institutional concerns, WAC programs are now more often engaged in assessment and research of writing,…

Many educators and researchers are discussing a shift in national education from an "instruction" paradigm emphasizing measuring inputs and providing instruction to a "learning" paradigm emphasizing outputs and producing learning. The question is how can Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) smoothly shift educational paradigms.…

The Writing Across the Business Disciplines Project at Robert Morris College has had a profound effect on faculty from various disciplines who have taken part in the program since its inception in 1985. Each participant targets a specific course in his or her own field for intensive scrutiny and eventual re-design. During this process, faculty…

This collection of essays on Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) defines terms, presents helpful suggestions, and provides models for useful documents (everything from workshop evaluation forms to contracts for visiting consultants). After a preface by Elaine P. Maimon, the collection's 12 essays are: (1) "Writing Across the Curriculum: An…