Across the Disciplines, a refereed journal devoted to language, learning, and academic writing, publishes articles relevant to writing and writing pedagogy in all their intellectual, political, social, and technological complexity. Across the Disciplines shares the mission of the WAC Clearinghouse in making information about writing and writing instruction freely available to members of the CAC, WAC, and ECAC communities.
Table of Contents for Volume 9, January through December 2012
Issue 1 (January through June)
Featured Articles:
The (In)Visible World of Teaching Assistants in the Disciplines: Preparing TAs to Teach Writing, Tanya Rodrigue.
This article explores the history of TAs in WAC programs and argues that WAC scholars must turn their attention to disciplinary TAs.
Calls for Special Issues
Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum (Proposals due June 1, 2012)
When faculty members are asked what they consider the single greatest problem they face in their classrooms on a daily basis, they almost always include reading as a key issue. Faculty comments reflect what could be described as the "don't, won't, can't" problem. That is, students don't read in the ways that faculty expect, and they won't unless faculty find ways to force or coerce reading compliance. Underlying these two significant aspects of the problem is a third, much bigger problem, which is that many students are not able read in the ways faculty would like. Qualitative and quantitative studies such as Jolliffe and Harl's analysis of students' reading journals at the University of Arkansas and ACT's 2006 study, relating ACT reading performance to success in college among 563,000 students, support the idea that students lack the reading skills needed to do college work successfully. This situation is becoming increasingly serious in the face of ever larger amounts of material available in print and online that faculty expect students to read, comprehend, and critically assess. Understanding and addressing the "don't, won't, can't" problem is everyone's job, in every course, in every discipline. In this special issue of Across the Disciplines, we invite proposals for articles that explore this issue across disciplines. (Guest edited by Alice Horning, Oakland University)
Note: If you would like to serve as guest editor for a special issue, or if you would like to suggest a topic for a special issue, please contact Michael Pemberton, editor, at michaelp@georgiasouthern.edu or (912) 478-1383.