LINKS & RESOURCES

There are many excellent pedagogical web resources that support and teach writing in any class. These websites offer guides to developing learning objectives, designing assignments, approaches to assessment, writing instruction handouts, videos for students, and tutorials on references and citation. Here is a sampling of some of the best:

MIT’s Teaching Writing and Communication website 

  • BEST FOR: Strategies for developing communication learning objectives and designing effective writing assignments.
  • Includes information on developing writing and communication learning objectives (i.e. drawing on research on how students learn to write), designing effective writing assignments, and strategies for responding to student writing (i.e. suggestions for responding to students who need more help). This website is expansive and detailed.

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) website

  • BEST FOR: A one-stop location when you’re not sure what you’re looking for, excellent student-friendly site for style guides with examples and simple explanations of academic writing conventions.
  • Includes thorough sitemap, various writing exercises, ESL writing instruction resources, overviews of common writing assignments, writing mechanics and grammar, visual rhetoric, and a popular research and citation guide. With over 200 resources, this website is extensive and frequently updated.

Harvard College’s Writing Center website  

  • BEST FOR: Student-friendly webpages explaining basic writing strategies/conventions that can also be connected to class discussion.
  • Includes quick explanations on various strategies for essay writing (i.e. close reading, thesis statement, editing steps, revision), using sources, and both brief and detailed guides to Writing in the Disciplines.

READINGS ON WAC

The WAC Casebook: Scenes for Faculty Reflection and Program Development (2001)(2005)
by Chris Anson

41Iktev4wML._SX336_BO1,204,203,200_Chris Anson‘s book is a great place to start learning about WAC and reading about 45 real student/teacher interactions. Available here. Dr. Anson visited Augsburg in 2013 and materials from his workshop are available on Moodle here (via the Moodle Community > General Education > WAC). We suggest reviewing his handout for its many examples of low/mid/high stakes writing assignments with rationales.

 

The following list includes free online texts that cover an array of topics related to Writing Across the Curriculum. Beyond reviewing the history and literature of WAC these texts typically include useful “Best Practices” in concluding chapters.

Reference Guide to Writing Across the Curriculum (2005)
by Charles Bazerman, Joseph Little, Lisa Bethel, Teri Chavkin, Danielle Fouquette, and Janet Garufis

coverIn addition to a historical review of WAC literature, this text summarizes related pedagogical issues of theory and practice. Most helpfully, the authors suggest best practices in program design, assessment, and classroom practices. The fifth chapter explains the “Writing to Learn” approach and the final chapter includes an extensive bibliography and suggestions for further reading, including disciplinary sources on WAC for Mathematics, Psychology, English, Literature and Language Arts, Economics, and History. All chapters are available online as free PDF documents, click here to be redirected to the book.

WAC for the New Millennium: Strategies for Continuing Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Programs (2011) (2001)(2005)
Edited by Susan H. McLeod, Eric Miraglia, Margot Soven, and Christopher Thaiss

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“The writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) movement, now more than 25 years old, has remained a stable part of the educational landscape, outlasting other educational innovations by adapting to new educational initiatives. This collection of essays describes how WAC programs have adapted and continue to adapt to meet new challenges. The editors explain strategies for continuing WAC programs in an atmosphere of change; explore new avenues of collaboration, such as service learning and the linked-course curricula of learning communities; predict areas into which WAC programs need to move; and suggest new directions for research on writing across the curriculum. All chapters are available online as free PDF documents, click here to be redirected to the book.

Writing Across the Curriculum: A Guide to Developing Programs (2000)
Edited by Susan H. McLeod and Margot Soven

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“Addressing the design, funding, operation, and underlying pedagogical principles of WAC programs, this comprehensive collection of essays offers important advice to WAC program designers and teachers. In 12 chapters, the contributors to this important collection discuss issues including program design, writing in the disciplines, writing to learn, writing-intensive courses, and the relationships among WAC programs, first-year writing programs, general education, and writing centers.” All chapters are available online as free PDF documents, click here to be redirected to the book.

Strengthening Programs for Writing Across the Curriculum (2002)
Edited by Susan H. McLeod

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“This collection of thoughtful, thoroughly grounded essays explores the design of writing-across-the-curriculum programs in new and maturing programs. The collection also contains an appendix listing the results of the first comprehensive survey of writing-across-the-curriculum programs in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada.” All chapters are available online as free PDF documents, click here to be redirected to the book.

 


LINKS ON WAC

The WAC Clearinghouse website

  • Includes open-access journals, books, and other resources for teachers who use writing in their courses. Also includes an online forum for ideas, issues, and practices related to Writing Across the Curriculum and access to published books and articles.

CompPile website

  • Includes access to an inventory of academic publications in writing studies, including post-secondary composition, rhetoric, technical writing, ESL, and discourse analysis.

Council of Writing Program Administrators website

  • The Council of Writing Program Administrators is a national association of college and university faculty with professional responsibilities for (or interests in) directing writing programs.

For further reading review the Statement of WAC Principles and Practices, endorsed by the International Network of WAC Programs (INWAC) and the Conference on College Composition and Communication Executive Committee. Other landmark texts can be located through the WAC Clearinghouse webpage here.