An Introduction to WAC

Questions to Ask about how Students will Perceive your Goals

Most university professors agree that research-based writing in college classes can and should meet these goals:

• Have we, in teaching research rather than critical thinking about research, misled ourselves and our students into reducing this vital undertaking into a set of easily replicated steps?
• And then by focusing on the steps, do we give students the wrong message about what is important in doing research?
• When we give them 50 pages on documentation styles, are we telling them that format is more important than the critical synthesis of opposing views?
• Do students who see a major chunk of the supporting materials for the assignment and the grade text devoted to mechanics of finding and citing material believe in the goals we'd like to believe research-based writing meets?