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.
Editors' Note: Reflections on ATD
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2007.4.1.01
Michael Pemberton reflects on the directions ATD will take in the coming year. (Published February 15, 2007)
Pam Childers reflects on collaborations among high schools, colleges, and universites. (Published February 15, 2007)
Finding Our Way as WAC-y Women: Writing Practice and Other Collegial Endeavors, Lesley Bogad, Jennifer S. Cook, Monica G. Darcy, Janet Donnell Johnson, Susan K. Patterson, and Mary Ellen Tillotson (authors alphabetical).
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2007.4.1.03
Six female faculty describe their collegial efforts in professional development that grew into a substantive endeavor to improve writing pedagogy and practice across the disciplines of English, Educational Studies, Instructional Technology, Educational Psychology and Counseling. The authors share concrete examples of their classroom practice and reflections on how this practice changed their pedagogy and their students' relationships to course content. Finally, these six junior faculty ponder the joys and benefits of collaboration, collegiality, and friendship in the academy. (Published December 19, 2007)
Writing Beyond the Curriculum: Transition, Transfer, and Transformation, Heather G. Lettner-Rust, Pamela J. Tracy, Susan L. Booker, Elizabeth Kocevar-Weidinger, and Jená B. Burges.
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2007.4.1.04
Part service-learning, part civic engagement, part student-directed research, and part interdisciplinary senior seminar, the course at the heart of Longwood University's mission combines a variation of writing-as-process with a ninety-degree rotation of writing-across-the-curriculum practices. Why and how it happened, and what we learned along the way, exemplifies the transformation of higher education's mission from an instructional paradigm to a learning paradigm. (Published October 8, 2007)
An Emic View of Student Writing and the Writing Process, Michael Hass and Jan Osborn.
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2007.4.1.05
Michael Hass and Jan Osborn use a Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) approach, which determines solutions to problems from moments of strength, as a model for studying what student writers believe constitutes good writing and what strategies most effectively help them produce high quality writing. The student responses provide an opportunity to design writing assignments that empower students to join the conversation in various discourse communities. (Published August 13, 2007)
Relational Communication as a Central Focus for the "Communication Across the Curriculum" Initiative, Amanda M. Gunn.
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2007.4.1.06
Amanda Gunn argues that the CAC national discourse is disproportionately focused on basic communication skill development. She offers CAC program leaders and practitioners a relational communication approach as an alternative. A practical applications section suggests ways a CAC program might implement a Relational Communication Across the Curriculum (RCAC) model in faculty development initiatives. (Published August 10, 2007)
Bringing Students into the Loop: A Faculty Feedback Program, Jacob Blumner, Francis Fritz, and Sarah Wice.
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2007.4.1.07
Jacob Blumner, Francis Fritz, and Sarah Wice report on a model for student and faculty collaboration in WAC that brings together the student-centered emphasis in writing center work and the faculty-centered emphasis in WAC by engaging writing tutors as collaborative partners with faculty. They find that "greater involvement in assignment design is a useful avenue to break from the transmission model of education and to involve students as stakeholders for curricular change." (Published June 21, 2007)
Reading Across the Curriculum as the Key to Student Success, Alice Horning.
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2007.4.1.08
Alice Horning argues that the current renewed emphasis on student success and a resurgence of Writing Across the Curriculum, should be matched by an emphasis on Reading Across the Curriculum. Horning presents strategies for using Reading Across the Curriculum to address students' needs, achieve instructional goals, and prepare citizens for full participation in a democracy. (Published May 14, 2007)
Fear of the Blank Page: Teaching Academic and Professional Writing in Social Work, Jean Schuldberg, Lorie Cavanaugh, Gabriel Aguilar, Jessica Cammack, Timmie Diaz, Noble Flournoy Jr., Kimberly Taylor, Sarah Nicole Olson, and Christine Sampson.
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2007.4.1.09
Jean Schuldberg and her colleagues report the results of a qualitative study of a pilot writing course for baccalaureate social work. They conclude that "the collaborative effort in the course and research study facilitated the development of [students'] professional writing and increased confidence for continued work." (Published April 1, 2007)
Vintage WAC: Improving the Learning Impact of WAC, Neill Thew and Magnus Gustafsson.
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2007.4.1.10
Neill Thew and Magnus Gustafsson offer their reflections on the 2006 WAC Conference at Clemson University and offer suggestions for extending the impact of WAC in the U.S. and internationally. (Published April 1, 2007)
Rupture and Innovation: Joint Instruction to Health Science Students in Tromsø, Norway, Ragnhild Nilsen.
DOI: 10.37514/ATD-J.2007.4.1.11
Ragnild Nilsen reports on a collaboration in a first-year course taught jointly by faculty from Tromsø University College and the University of Tromsø. He analyzes differences in the instructional goals of the participants in the course, and reflects on the extent to which "deep-seated professional disagreement was allowed to affect the course throughout without being properly dealt with." (Published February 15, 2007)