WAC+-+In+the+21st+Century

As research progressed on the secondary level, practical obstacles began to form in the organization of the disciplines at the high school level. District-wide initiatives were difficult to implement and maintain while teachers in areas other than English felt the pressure to complete their own curriculum requirements along with assessing student writing.

This situation made the post-secondary level an ideal spot for writing across the curriculum to develop and thrive. The organizational structure of a collegiate environment could require students to participate in freshman composition courses while also developing writing intensive courses later in a student's educational journey.

Bob Marrs, the Esther and Robert Armstrong Professor in Rhetoric at Coe College discusses the beginnings of WAC on his campus:

[|Bob Marrs Interview]

In order for the WAC movement to gain momentum, leaders in the field began to offer faculty workshops focusing on the importance of WAC as well as practical strategies for implementing it including free writing, journal writing and ungraded assignments. These workshops quickly led to the creation of writing centers that began to proliferate on college campuses.

The following is a brief interview with a WAC Consultant at Ohio State:

[|WAC Consultant Interview]

That is not to say that writing instructors and writing program administrators were not faced with obstacles. In addition to continuous issues with funding, college professors were also reluctant to assess writing as part of their curriculum. In an article by Stephen Tchudi, he attempts to alleviate these concerns by stating:

in trying to allay the worries of content teachers that they lack the skills to teach writing, I stress what I call the "rhetoric of content writing." "Keep content at the center of the writing process." I remind content teachers that they know their discipline well, and that if they will simply keep a focus on helping students to express ideas in the discipline clearly, matters of content, form, style, and even mechanics will be taught in context as appropriate. Content teachers are most effective as writing teachers when they do not present lists of vocabulary words in the discipline or try to teach rhetorical forms peculiar to the discipline...keep meaning at the center of language instruction and all else follows (24).

The future of WAC is dependent on content-area teachers willing to embrace the idea that writing leads to learning and that a student-centered learning environment is more beneficial in the long run as compared to the more traditional format of the "sage on the stage" popular on most university campuses. Patricia L. Stock reinforces this idea when she states "the best way for students to become expert writers is for them to write purposively about subjects that interest them for audiences that have a need or desire to know about their topics. Students simultaneously grow as both writers (authors) and as students (authorities)" (100).

In "Writing Across the Curriculum in a Time of Change" Susan McLeod and Eric Miraglia discuss the evolution of WAC in the 21st century. One of the most important developments is the increasing use of technology in composition courses (as evident in the use of this wikispace as a final product). Some professors argue that non-alphabetic text is not rigorous enough and does not have a place in the university system. While others, like Andrea Lunsford in a response to the naysayers during a webinar sponsored by Bedford/ St. Martin's, simply feel "they need to get over it." (Note: trying to link the audio for the full webinar here). In their article McLeod and Miraglia reference useful WAC resources available that are fully electronic. One example is [|Kairos]a fully electronic journal exploring issues connecting composition studies and technology. They have even seen the emergence of technology changing the WAC acronym to ECAC or Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum noting that the word writing isn't even mentioned (7).