This article describes the results of a survey of community college instructors who were asked about the writing they assign in non-English courses. The 171 respondents, representing 140 colleges, identified the kinds of writing they assign and the challenges that come with assigning writing. These challenges included finding time to grade…

Undergraduate writing fellows play an important role in administering writing assignments in writing-intensive courses. At the University of Michigan, the MWrite program was designed to support the implementation of writing-to-learn (WTL) assignments in STEM courses. Within MWrite, writing fellows are a primary instructional resource for students…

Our research explores the meaningful writing experiences of 325 undergraduate students who self-identify as multilingual. Through qualitative coding of open-ended survey data, we found that respondents considered their writing meaningful when it allowed them to make personal and relevant connections and learn new skills and strategies. Our…

Writing proficiency has become a common student learning outcome at all types of higher education institutions across the United States. However, despite the consistent popularity of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) over the last few decades, most two-year institutions still have no formalized WAC program or training, and programs that are…

Universities across Canada and elsewhere have a longstanding focus on improving students' writing skills, including for the purpose of fostering better learning. In this paper, we present findings from two sources of data--a discursive analysis and student survey--exploring the impact of writing instruction and support in the context of a required…

This research study of a WAC learning community focuses on instructors' behind-the-scenes decision making about assignment design. Specifically, we show how instructors use direct personal experience--as students, teachers and scholars--to approach writing assignment design, invoking these experiences to discuss the origin of their assignments and…

ENG 7980: History and Theories of Composition (HTC) is a course required for all MA and PhD students in rhetoric and composition at Ohio University. This section of HTC was designed with two specific goals in mind. The first was to introduce students to multiple theories of composition, and the second was to not only teach but also to facilitate…

This study examines how seventeen writing intensive instructors at a Midwestern, public university used writing as a mode of learning about complex, sensitive, and challenging issues across the disciplines. For their students, the pen effectively became a bridge to the development of critical thinking skills, greater self-awareness, and a deeper…

Written communication skills are often among the most important applied skills sought by employers when hiring graduates of colleges of agriculture. However, recent reports cite a gap between employers' expectations and graduates' levels of preparedness in key applied skills, among them "effective written communication." One critical…

This article describes a course design that offers an innovative approach to using client-based projects (CBPs) in technical and professional writing. It shows how teachers can incorporate CBPs in hybrid or fully virtual instruction, adapt it for a quarter or semester, and tailor it to meet students' needs. While there are standard writing…

Students face challenging texts and concepts across the disciplines in higher education, and many students lack the reading skills and strategies to make sense of them. The aim of the small study described in this article was to explore the benefits, if any, of the difficulty paper, a written formative assessment that asks students to explore…

As WPAs at a research institution without a WAC program, we embarked on this project to learn about the types of writing prompts faculty across the disciplines assign and their expectations for student writing. Although our first-year composition program is genre-based and focuses on teaching for transfer, we did not know what genres other faculty…

Studies examining writing as a High-Impact Education Practice (HIP) have focused primarily on writing in terms of major project assignments, thus directing attention away from the promising high impacts that low-stakes writing (LSW) assignments have on student learning. This study piloted assigning LSW in two MBA classes to test the extent to…

Since writing in the disciplines (WID) is focused on learning how to write formal documents of a professional register, it is important to note that each field or discipline has its own style, structure, and format when it comes to writing, and most composition courses seldom facilitate the transfer of these specialized skills in the classroom.…

To more effectively meet the expectations of industry for entry-level IT employees, a case is made for the inclusion of writing throughout the Computer Information Systems (CIS) curriculum. "Writing Across the Curriculum" ("WAC") principles are explained, and it is opined that both Writing to Learn (WTL) and Writing in the…