In its most general sense, WAC refers to the notion that writing should be an integral part of the learning process throughout a student’s education, not merely in required writing courses but across the entire curriculum. Further, it is based on the premise that writing is highly situated and tied to a field’s discourse and ways of knowing, and therefore writing in the disciplines (WID) is most effectively guided by those with expertise in that discipline. WAC also recognizes that students come to the classroom with a wide range of literacy, linguistic, technological, and educational experiences, but that all students can learn to become more proficient writers. WAC2 as an initiative can be transformative for learning, teaching, and research. For students, WAC promotes engaged student learning, critical thinking, and greater facility with written communication across rhetorical situations. For teachers, WAC promotes thoughtful pedagogy and curriculum design as well as community among faculty that transcends disciplinary boundaries. For researchers in writing studies and across the disciplines, WAC promotes cross-disciplinary scholarship on teaching and learning, as well as scholarship on the values and ways of thinking in the disciplines and the ways those ideas and actions are communicated in writing.

Statement of WAC Principles and Practices, International Network of WAC Programs^[1]

At Cleveland State University, the Writing Across the Curriculum program functions as the third and final stage in a student’s writing development. CSU students begin their writing journey with our Inquiry Core Curriculum composition courses and then further develop and refine those skills across several disciplines through the rest of the Core Curriculum. As they then turn to significant focus on their major, WAC courses provide an opportunity to engage intensively with course content through writing and develop the ability to communicate clearly within specific disciplines and professions.

Given this focus of the CSU WAC program, the design and implementation of WAC courses should be guided by the following principles:

1. Engage students in “writing-to-learn” activities that increase student engagement with learning and prompt higher-order thinking about the subject of the course.
2. Develop and assess student ability to write in disciplinarily appropriate ways.
3. Promote the perspective of Writing as a Process, emphasizing the iterative nature of both thinking and communicating through writing.

You can learn more about the specific requirements for WAC courses at CSU on the WAC page of the Instructional Excellence Core Curriculum site.

There is a significant national WAC community providing significant resources on best practices for the design of WAC courses and writing assignments. In what follows, you can find links with annotations to many of those resources. You are also encouraged to visit the Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse to locate additional resources that may interest you.

General WAC Design Resources

• An Introduction to Writing Across the Curriculum – The WAC Clearinghouse: A “Frequently Asked Questions” style overview of WAC, with a focus on the purpose of WAC and some discussion of activity and assignment design
  • What is Writing to Learn? – The WAC Clearinghouse: This page specifically focuses on “Writing to Learn” and provides a variety of types of Writing to Learn activities to draw from.
• Teaching Guides – The WAC Clearinghouse: List of various guides for designing WAC courses and implementing specific WAC practices.
• Faculty Tip Sheets – The WAC Clearinghouse: Tipsheets with further resources for implementing specific practices into a WAC course and handling specific issues that may arise.

Writing in the age of AI

• TextGenEd – The WAC Clearinghouse: A collection of 34 undergraduate-level assignments focused on promoting AI literacy, using AI tools for creative exploration, understanding the ethical considerations of AI use, engaging in professional writing, and examining how AI may alter rhetorical engagements and communicative acts.
• Continuing Experiments – The WAC Clearinghouse: A repository of annual addendums to the TextGenEd initiative linked above. Contains even more assignments to draw inspiration from.
• AI Text Generators and Teaching Writing: Starting Points for Inquiry – The WAC Clearinghouse: Large collection of various resources to help faculty think about the implications of AI in the classroom and beyond, as well as course and assignment design in the age of AI.

Other Writing Resources

The resources in this section are not necessarily WAC-specific, nor are they necessarily applicable to all WAC/writing-oriented courses. But, depending on the nature of your discipline and course, they may be helpful for either you or your students.

• How Arguments Work – A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College (Mills) – Humanities LibreTexts: Open-access textbook focused especially on argumentative writing. Is intended to be used with students, but may be of value to faculty looking to integrate some aspects into their courses.
• Frameworks for Academic Writing (Poulter) – Humanities LibreTexts: Open-access textbook focused on different types of academic writing which you may want to incorporate into a WAC (or any other) course.
• The Process of Research Writing (Krause) – Humanities LibreTexts: Open-access textbook focused on research writing. Includes activities for scaffolding the research writing process.
• A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing (The Interactive 2nd Edition) – Open Textbook: An open-access textbook written by CSU First Year Writing faculty and used in ENG 101 and 102 courses. Highly recommend reminding students of this resource and using the ideas in your own courses as many of your students will be familiar with the ideas from earlier coursework.