Approaches:
1. cognitive--using writing to learn; giving students many opportunities
to explain things for themselves; thinking on paper; learning as discovery;
writing as a way of objectifying thought
2. rhetorical--learning to write in particular disciplines; introducing
students to conventions of a discipline through writing assignments; creating
knowledge in a field
Principles:
1. Writing and learning are inextricably linked
2. Writing is different in different disciplines and contexts.
3. Teachers should help guide the writing process, not merely
judge the writing product.
4. Writing is learned through reading and participating in a
community, not merely through lectures, rules and drills.
5. WAC means reconception of teacher/learner functions; it is
not merely additive
The following are some of the models and options that are pursued
in colleges and universities. Often schools combine more than one.
1. Six to eight session faculty seminar, during one semester.
Faculty receive released time and/or stipends for attending and working
on developing assignments and syllabi.(This model was used in the past
at PNY and WP with Charlotte Rotkin and Phyllis Edelson as faculty
directors)
2. Writing Assistants who take a training course and work with
students and assist professors
3. Writing Intensive courses in core and/or major
4. Clustered or linked first-year composition course with one
in another discipline
5.Faculty retreat of one-two days
6. Periodic faculty workshops, consultations and informal meetings
with campus director of WAC and interested faculty
7. Outside WAC consultants invited to speak to faculty and lead
workshops
8. Booklets developed for students in different disciplines about
writing expectations and guidelines.
9. Faculty newsletters; WAC website; on-line discussion groups
We at Pace have the opportunity to shape our own WAC program
that is meaningful for us. The Writing Assistants program is one
model proposed by Linda Anstendig and Eugene Richie.