Volume 15, 2018

  • Literacy, faculty, CAC, assessment, genre studies, Transfer, Epistemology, WAC, writing in the disciplines, scientific writing

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 15, January through December 2018

Issue 1 (Special Issue: Internationalizing the WAC/WID Curriculum)

Guest editors: Stefanie Frigo and Collie Fulford, North Carolina Central University

One of the great challenges in charting the development of internationalization within WAC and WID is the fact that multiple definitions of the term "internationalizing" or "internationalization" exist. In a general sense, "internationalizing" classes, curricula, or institutions often seems designed to make students better able to communicate and compete in a globalized world, but the multiple prior and co-existent definitions that are in circulation in current WAC/WID scholarship have somewhat muddied the waters of practical application. In this special issue of Across the Disciplines (ATD), we hope to continue this work, examining the ways in which internationalization is defined within the field, and developing pedagogical and curricular applications further.

Contents:

Introducing Bringing the Outside In: Internationalizing the WAC/WID Classroom
Stefanie Frigo and Collie Fulford, North Carolina Central University
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.1.01

Growing Pains and Course Correction: Internationalizing a Writing Program
Emily Feuerherm and Jacob Blumner, University of Michigan-Flint
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.1.02

Internationalizing Writing in the STEM Disciplines
Ghanashyam Sharma, Stony Brook University
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.1.03

Encountering Internationalization in the Writing Classroom: Resistant Teaching and Learning Strategies
Yasmine Romero, University of Hawai’i, West O’ahu, and Ann Shivers-McNair, University of Arizona
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.1.04

Can I Say "I" in My Paper?: Teaching Metadiscourse to Develop International Writers' Authority and Disciplinary Expertise
Jane Fife, Western Kentucky University
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.1.05

Issue 2 (January through June)

Featured Articles:

What We Mean When We Talk about Reading: Rethinking the Purposes and Contexts of College Reading
Rachel Ihara and Ann Del Principe, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.2.06

This study illuminates faculty beliefs about reading by closely examining their attitudes toward assigned readings and faculty professional reading practice. Drawing upon interview data from instructors teaching in a range of disciplines at a two-year college, we that conversations about reading would benefit from greater awareness of the various contexts and purposes for reading. Rather than talk about reading as something students either "do" or "don’t do", or do well or poorly, we draw attention to the ways that different purposes for reading shape reading behaviors for students and faculty alike.

Engaging Undergraduate Researchers in the Assessment of Communication across the Curriculum Courses
Joyce Kinkead, Utah State University
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.2.07

This article describes an assessment project that analyzed syllabi approved for a communication intensive (CI) requirement in a general education program. The article suggests that it is important to ensure that inputs are evaluated prior to an evaluation of outcomes. The assessment itself was undertaken by a team of undergraduates enrolled in a research methods course. This is a group that has an important stake in the delivery of communication across the curriculum (CxC) courses as more often than not, it is these students and their writing that are being assessed. We turn the tables and make them the assessors and lay out the process of conducting such an assessment using novice researchers, noting the benefits and risks involved.

Reviews:

A Review of Faculty Development and Student Learning: Assessing the Connections, William Condon, Ellen R. Iverson, Cathryn A. Manduca, Carol Rutz, and Gudrun Willett, 2016. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP. [ISBN 978-0-253-01878-6. 156 pgs, including index. $50.00 USD (hardcover).]
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.2.03

A review by Darci L. Thoune, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (Published July 20, 2018)

Issue 3 (Special Issue: Rewriting Disciplines, Rewriting Boundaries: Transdisciplinary and Translingual Challenges for WAC/WID)

Guest editors: Bruce Horner, University of Louisville, and Jonathan Hall, York College, The City University of New York

We live in the age of trans. This special issue focuses on transdisciplinary and translingual challenges for WAC/WID, but it also invites readers to see these challenges as part of a much broader trans moment. Most prominently, of course, trans in contemporary culture points to transgender, transsexual, and related terms. For persons who identify as trans, it is both a deeply personal matter, yet also inevitably a socially-constructed one. Transing requires that social categories such as gender be seen as malleable, as arbitrary and imposed, and therefore subject to change, as opposed to natural, biological, and inviolable. Translinguality seems to demand transdisciplinary work despite the challenges and problems of engaging in such work. How might WID scholarship and teaching respond to these challenges? Our hope is that this collection serves as an invitation to enter into parallel conversations that have already been going on regarding trans approaches in a broad variety of academic fields and publishing venues, among scholars with widely differing "home" professional identities.

Contents:

Introduction to the Special Issue: Rewriting Disciplines, Rewriting Boundaries
Jonathan Hall, York College, The City University of New York
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.08

Advancing a Transnational, Transdisciplinary and Translingual Framework: A Professional Development Series for Teaching Assistants in Writing and Spanish Programs
Alyssa G. Cavazos, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Marcela Hebbard, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, José E Hernández, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Crystal Rodriguez, South Texas College, and Geoffrey Schwarz, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.09

The Translingual Challenge: Boundary Work in Rhetoric & Composition, Second Language Writing, and WAC/WID
Jonathan Hall, York College, The City University of New York
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.10

WAC/WID and Transfer: Towards a Transdisciplinary View of Academic Writing
C.C. Hendricks, Syracuse University
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.11

Rewriting Disciplines: STEM Students’ Longitudinal Approaches to Writing in (and across) the Disciplines
Anne Ruggles Gere, University of Michigan, Anna V. Knutson, East Tennessee State University, and Ryan McCarty, University of Michigan
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.12

Translinguality and Disciplinary Reinvention
Bruce Horner, University of Louisville
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.13

Languaging about Language in an Interdisciplinary Writing-Intensive Course
Joel Heng Hartse, Simon Fraser University, Michael Lockett, Michigan State University, and Melek Ortabasi, Simon Fraser University
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.14

Thinking Through Difference and Facts of Nonusage: A Dialogue Between Comparative Rhetoric and Translingualism
LuMing Mao, University of Utah
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.15

Modern Languages, Bilingual Education, and Translation Studies: The Next Frontiers in WAC/WID Research and Instruction?
Guillaume Gentil, Carleton University
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.16

“We are the ‘Other’”: The Future of Exchanges between Writing and Language Studies
Christiane Donahue, Dartmouth College
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.17

Response: “Trans-“ Work Takes Place
Jay Jordan, University of Utah
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.3.18

Issue 4 (July through December)

Featured Articles:

The Box Under the Bed: How Learner Epistemologies Shape Writing Transfer
Dana Driscoll and Daewoo Jin, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.4.19

This article draws upon Bergmann and Zepernick’s (2007) metaphor of the box under the bed to investigate the relationship between students’ epistemologies and their learning transfer in diverse contexts over undergraduate years. We describe three primary types of students’ epistemologies, the factors that influence the development of these transfer-based epistemologies, and the relationship between students’ epistemologies and reported learning transfer and genre knowledge. This article concludes by discussing how understanding students’ learner epistemologies can improve pedagogical practices that help students engage with prior writing knowledge in disciplinary writing contexts and suggests new directions for transfer theory and research.

Dispositions in Natural Science Laboratories: The Roles of Individuals and Contexts in Writing Transfer.
Neal Baird, Bowling Green State University, and Bradley Dilger, Purdue University
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.4.20

In this article, we consider dispositions in science laboratories, which are important contexts for WAC/WID instruction, especially at institutions where these courses serve majors and other students simultaneously. Drawing on data from a larger longitudinal study of writing transfer in the major at a state comprehensive university, we offer case studies of two science laboratories developed from interviews with students and faculty, supported by analysis of student writing and instructional materials. Our findings contribute to efforts to identify the dispositions critical for writing instruction and to diversify the specific WAC/WID contexts where writing transfer is being considered.

Reviews:

A Review of Expanding Literate Landscapes: Persons, Practices, and Sociohistoric Perspectives of Disciplinary Development, Kevin Roozen and Joe Erickson, 2017. Logan, UT: Computers and Composition Digital Press/Utah State University Press. [ISBN 978-1-60732-6601. http://ccdigitalpress.org/book/expanding.]
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.4.03

A review by Brian Hendrickson, Roger Williams University (Published December 26, 2018)

A Review of Contingency, Exploitation, and Solidarity: Labor and Action in English Composition, edited by Seth Kahn, William B. Lalicker, and Amy Lynch-Binie, 2017. Perspectives on Writing. Fort Collins, Colorado: The WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado. [ISBN 978-1-60732-765-3 (paperback). https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/contingency/]
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2018.15.4.04

A review by Jennifer Ann Messier, George Mason University (Published December 26, 2018)