WAC+-+The+Early+Years


 * "Why Johnny Can't Write?"**



Two events on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean converged to create the beginning stages of the WAC movement. The first was the seminal work of James Britton and his team at the University of London in the early 70s. His work with 11 - 17 year old students, published in 1975, changed the way professionals in the field of composition studies viewed the writing process. His study concluded that the further students moved along in their academic careers, the more their writing changed from "expressive" to "transactional." Expressive writing granted students the opportunity to explore their ideas and develop a sense of discovery while transactional writing focused mainly on a student's ability to inform the reader of knowledge acquired (Fulwiler and Young 5). Britton believes "the small amount of specualtive writing certainly suggests that, for whatever reason, curricular aims did not include the fostering of writing that reflects independent thinking (Fulwiler and Young 5). For more information regarding the work of Britton and his study visit [].

At the same time, the power of the press had the ability to institute an educational reform movement when the headline "Why Johnny Can't Write?" appeared in the mid-70s on the cover of //Newsweek//. Identifying the weaknesses among students throughout the United States, the article forced parents and administrators to demand an evaluation of the writing curriculum in American schools. The following is a video that reflects on that article thirty years later and incorporates several excerpts from the original text both as visual text and in an oral reading by the narrator of the short film:

[|"Why Johnny Can't Write?"]

These two events created leaders in the WAC movement including Toby Fulwiler and his colleague Art Young, whose book //Language Connections// (see the link above) established a protocol for integrating writing into an existing curricula through the use of faculty workshops, journals and ungraded writing assignments with an emphais on "writing to learn" (Bazerman 27). On the East Coast, Elaine Maimon was tasked by the dean of Beaver College in Pennsylvania to respond to the call for action depicted in the media. In addition to faculty workshops, she instituted "group work, collaborative projects and writing intensive courses within the various majors (Bazerman 27).