1.  Writing Across the Curriculum WAC Basics

2. Based upon Susan McLeod  “The Pedagogy of WAC”

3. WAC Started …  In the 1970’s  As a response to declining skills  As a way for all faculty to learn to help students’ to write well  For all faculty, throughout the disciplines

4. WAC  Challenges the presumption that teaching writing is for English Composition  Works with the premise that those in the various disciplines are best suited to teach the genre of that specific discipline 

5. Two Central WAC Ideas Writing to Learn Writing to Communicate

6. Writing to Learn  WAC asserts that writing is not only a tool to articulate what a student has already learned, but can also be used to understand and internalize course content  According to McLeod referencing James Britton, “language is central to learning because it is through language that we organize our representation of the world.”

7. Writing to Learn Ideas Dialectical notebookDialogue journalForeign language journalFreewrites

8. Writing to Communicate  “Focuses on writing to an audience outside the self in order to inform that audience”  “Is reader based rather than writer based”  Posits that writing and epistemology are connected  “Involves learning the processes by which experts in the field develop and disseminate knowledge”

9. Writing to Communicate Is genre based- the student becomes an apprentice to the dicipline

10. When running WAC Workshops Be sure to model the pedagogical approaches you espouse

11. The Future of WAC  WAC had a lot of support, but now the excitement in the trend is fading.  It was once highly funded, and now the funding is dwindling.  I believe the future of WAC is in its integration in teaching methods. This is where we come in – to get the word out.