Writing Across The Curriculum - Current Controversies

Current Controversies

Location of WAC – Debate remains over whether WAC should be administered by the English department or whether it should be a free-standing unit. One major consideration is financial: who will be financially responsible for WAC (especially for faculty and staff salaries) has much to do with how WAC resources are expended and feelings of ownership around the program. Similarly, where WAC is administratively located influences who participates in WAC; housing WAC in English may limit participation by non-English faculty. Another consideration is philosophical: is or is not WAC a branch of English?

Function of WAC – Substantial discussion surrounds the question of what goals WAC should serve. Most programs have at least an implicit focus on writing to learn, with faculty encouraged to incorporate student-centered, informal writing into their courses as a tool to promote student engagement. Several programs – at North Carolina State University, Seattle University, and the University of Minnesota, notably – have instead structured WAC around helping individual departments meet departmentally-specific writing goals for their students. While these programs still employ writing to learn, they also acknowledge the potential for WAC to help teach students the writing expected of professionals in their chosen field. A second, related question is whether WAC should work to teach the individual, specialized discourses of different disciplines or whether WAC should aim to act as a unifying force, teaching a universal academic writing style to help students unify their college writing experiences.