1. An Interactive Introduction to Writing Across the Curriculum
I’m Patrick Nevins, Associate Professor of English and English program chair at the Columbus campus. Thank you for joining me for An Interactive Introduction to Writing Across the Curriculum.
To get us started, I’d like you to take a few minutes to write down what you’ve learned so far at the Student Success Summit. (I said it would be interactive.) You had yesterday’s keynote address, a breakout session, and this morning’s presentation and breakout session. Maybe you learned something from talking to colleagues last night. Lots of opportunities to learn. So write down what you’ve learned so far.
(Ask a few participants to share their writing.)
Thank you. You can set your writing aside for now.
April 13, 2018

2. “Good writing assignments… evoke a high level of critical thinking, help students wrestle productively with a course’s big questions, and teach disciplinary ways of seeing, knowing, and doing.”
John Bean, Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, 2011
(Leave this slide up while participants are writing.)

3. Basic Principles of WAC
Writing is the responsibility of the entire academic community
Writing must be integrated across departmental boundaries
Writing instruction must be continued during all four years of undergraduate education
Writing promotes learning
Only by practicing the conventions of an academic discipline will students begin to communicate effectively within that discipline
“Why Include Writing in My Courses?” The WAC Clearinghouse
I promised in the program that I would introduce you to the basic principles of Writing Across the Curriculum, which I believe will help you answer the question, “What kinds of writing should I assign in my courses?”
Some background on WAC. It emerged in the 1970s and ‘80s as a response to the lack of writing practice in college curriculums. We use writing every day, right? And students need continuous practice, not just one or two courses, if they’re going to become skilled writers in college and in the workforce. And they weren’t getting that practice.
These are the basic principles of WAC: (See slide).
The first three principles suggest that writing instruction does not end in English Composition. Students should leave ENGL 111 prepared for the demands of college writing—but it is the responsibility of all faculty to teach students how to think and write in their disciplines.
The last two principles point to the benefits of WAC: It promotes learning and it introduces students to writing in a discipline.
Research into WAC suggests several positive outcomes:
*The authors of the WAC Clearinghouse at Colorado State University say that WAC “helps student prepare for the day-in and day-out communicative tasks they’ll face on the job, no matter what the job is” (2).
*In a study of the WAC program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a majority of students interviewed reported that “writing instruction in their majors was preparing them for thinking and writing in the work force or graduate school” (4).
*A study of general education biology students found that “students who wrote as part of their course work improved analysis and inference skills significantly as well as their evaluative skills” (4)
*Another study revealed that students in a history course “changed their learning strategies from completing tasks and memorizing facts to critical thinking” (5).
(“Why Include Writing in My Courses?”)

4. Basic Principles of WAC
Writing promotes learning
Only by practicing the conventions of an academic discipline will students begin to communicate effectively within that discipline
Writing to Learn (WTL)
Writing in the Disciplines (WID)
Let’s look again at the last two principles. These principles stand behind the two kinds of writing assignments WAC urges faculty to use: Writing to Learn (WTL) and Writing in the Disciplines (WID).
Writing to Learn (WTL) assignments are generally brief, informal, low-stakes writing tasks, completed either in or out of class, that “help students think through key concepts” (1).
This kind of exploratory writing “records the actual process of critical thinking while simultaneously driving it forward” and “transforms the way students study for a course because it can make active critical thinking about course subject matter part of each day’s homework” (John Bean, Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, 2011).
“The purpose of writing to learn assignments… is to use writing as a tool for learning rather than a test of that learning” (Susan McLeod and Elaine Maimon, “Clearing the Air: WAC Myths and Realities,” 2000).
This is how WAC “promotes learning.”

5. Examples of Writing to Learn (WTL) Assignments
Reading journal
Synthesis paper
Learning log
Analyzing the process
Pre-test warm-up
Examples of WTL assignments include:
*Reading journals: These can be used for any kind of text you assign—textbook chapters, journal articles, videos, etc. Students use the left half of the page to record the content of the reading, and the right half of the page to record observations and questions (1).
*Synthesis papers: These short papers ask students to make connections between two or more texts (3). If students are already keeping a reading journal, then they likely have already started making those connections.
*Learning logs: These are journals that record student learning; students can summarize a lecture or lab. Or you can begin class by having students write about their learning in the previous class, and have them write again at the end of class about their learning that day (4).
*Analyzing the process: If your students are learning a process, you can have them write down the steps either during or after they finish the process (4).
*And Pre-test warm-ups: This is one I really enjoy. You can ask students to write test questions and answers. Reading their questions can help you see what concepts they understand and what they’re struggling with (“Writing-to-Learn Activities” 5).
Have any of you used a writing assignment like one of these?
If you haven’t ever used something like this, keep in mind that “because they are informal and often impromptu, writing-to-learn activities aren’t marked for correctness.” They are read “for a general sense of what students understand and don’t understand” (“What is Writing to Learn?” 3).
(“Writing-to-Learn Activities”)
(Mute slide)
Now let’s look at Writing in the Disciplines (WID) assignments. These are the essays, lab reports, and other formal documents that mimic what professionals write. Instructors use these to “initiate students into [the] discourse communities of their disciplines” (Dan Melzer, Assignments Across the Curriculum, 15).
Examples from the WAC Clearinghouse include a professional critique for a landscape architecture course and a scientific paper for an animal nutrition course.
This is how WAC helps students begin to communicate effectively within a discipline.
Have any of you used a writing assignment like this?
If you’ve assigned these kinds of things before, you know that they usually require weeks of work from students, and that giving good feedback takes time, because you have to address the content as well as your students’ adherence to disciplinary conventions.
The appropriate ratio of WTL-to-WID assignments depends on a couple of factors: the learning outcomes, or goals, for the course and enrollment. WTL assignments might make up the majority of writing in a 100-level course with upwards of thirty students, while more WID assignments would be appropriate for a 200-level course with lower enrollment. A psychology instructor on my campus said he did use WID assignments for PSYC 101, an intro course, but did introduce them in PSYC 205.

6. Summarize the difference between Writing to Learn (WTL) and Writing in the Disciplines (WID) assignments.
Okay—time to write again.
In a few minutes, summarize the difference between WTL and WID assignments.
(Ask a few participants to share their writing.)

7. Combining WTL with WID Rhetorical analysis Popular article
There’s also a middle ground between WTL and WID assignments. These kinds of assignments “can help students learn the language and ways of thinking of a discipline” (3).
In a rhetorical analysis, students read a journal article, and after summarizing the content and capturing their thoughts and questions in a reading journal—WTL—they write an analysis of the article’s focus, organization, evidence, etc., which helps them learn the conventions of an article in that discipline (3).
Another example is a popular article. Rather than asking students to write an article for an audience of experts in a discipline, you can ask them to write for a general audience as a way of testing their understanding of course content (4).
(“What is Writing in the Disciplines?”)

8. Time to talk about the strategic plan!
My dream is to develop an impactful WAC program on my campus, and see WAC programs develop across the college.
“A WAC program… is any organized, recognized, and sustained effort… to help faculty in any and every course use writing to deliberately and more often” (1), with the end goal being increased student success—Goal 1. One element of WAC programs are faculty development programs, so I see a clear connection to the Strategy 1.2 goal of “providing professional development to faculty to ensure student achievement.”
(“What is a WAC Program?”)

9. I also see a connection between WAC programs and Goal 5—especially Strategy 5.2, which is about creating innovative spaces on each campus. Another aspect of WAC programs are writing centers that serve not only students, but also support faculty who use writing in their courses.
(Mute slide)
Okay, one more writing task: Briefly write what you learned from this session. If you’re able to connect anything your learned from this session with your prior learning at the summit, record that.
(Allow participants to write for a few minutes.)
So I had you doing a couple of WTL tasks. At the beginning of the session, I asked you to start a learning log by writing what you had learned so far at the summit. In the middle of the session, I asked you to write a summary of your learning up to that point to check your understanding. And at the end of the session, I had you return to your learning log and write what you learned from this session and to look for connections.

10. Lunch Discussion Table 13, 12:00-12:45 Patrick Nevins
Thank you again for attending. I’m happy to talk about WAC more if you want to join me for lunch. I’ll be at table 13.