WAC Bibliography

1. Carroll, Lee Ann. (2002). Rehearsing new roles: How college students develop as writers (Studies in Writing and Rhetoric). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Annotation: Carroll followed 20 college students for four years, interviewing them about writing tasks, challenges, successes and failures, and reading (with a team of faculty researchers from various disciplines) the texts the students produced and the writing logs they kept. The pattern of development they note aligns with a ‘Cultural/Environmental View of Development’ based in the work of Jerome Bruner, Michael Cole, and Urie Bronfenbrenner. This view holds that development is uneven and that progress entails increasing ability to understand and respond to the environment in which one finds oneself. The most successful students were those most willing to take on take on new challenges and to work toward the meta-cognitive awareness needed to figure out what a new challenge required and what they needed to do to meet it. (Significantly, such students frequently said they were able to give the teacher ‘what s/he wanted.’) Carroll concludes by recommending that faculty ‘[t]ake seriously questions about ‘what the professor wants’ and provide clearly explained assignments, guidelines for performance, models, specific feedback, and opportunities for self-assessment and improvement’ (134). Faculty and WPAs should also work to: (a) think of student work as literacy challenges and not writing tasks; (b) help students focus on writing differently, not better; (c) learn from other faculty what demands they will be making and help students anticipate; provide more options in required literacy environments; (d) develop projects and assignments that will challenge all students—even if finished projects are less than great; (e) provide scaffolding to support development by directly teaching discipline specific research and writing skills, using grading strategically to reward improvement, scheduling interim deadlines for longer projects, and requiring classroom workshops, study groups, and teacher conferences; (f) reconsider with students, colleagues, and other professionals whether ‘what the professor wants’ is, in fact, what the discipline needs or should want. [A. Patricia Burnes, Supporting Undergraduate Writers Beyond the First Year, WPA-CompPile Research Bibliographies, No. 6]

Keywords: development, case-study, data, self-evaluation, teacher-expectation, teacher-student, WID, WAC, college-span, rehearsal, writer-role

2. Chanock, Kate. (2007). Helping Thesis Writers to Think About Genre:What is Prescribed, What May Be Possible. The WAC Journal, 18(1), 31-41. https://doi.org/10.37514/WAC-J.2007.18.1.03

Annotation: Describes a WAC-like seminar created to aid graduate students in discovering how to simultaneously write creatively and formally in accordance with their respective disciplines. By using analysis of established genres in thesis formation students work within the guidelines and concerns of the discipline while applying their own ideas of what constitutes relevant forms and content for personal investment. Purpose is to foster interpersonal communication among members of the academic disciplines. [Michael Bistreich]

Keywords: masters thesis-writing, genre-analysis, graduate, WAC, seminar, Australian, creativity, academic, disciplinary, individual, interpersonal

3. Dittmer, Allan. (1986). Guidelines for writing in the content areas. English Journal 75.4, 59-63.

Keywords: WAC, guidelines

4. Keessen, Jan; Marjorie Ann White. (1991). Writing across the curriculum: 'Wanted: Guidelines for teaching writing in non-writing courses,' and 'WAC--an answer to multicultural diversity'. ERIC Document Reproduction Service, ED 348 693.

Keywords: WAC, research-method, multicultural, chemistry-course, pedagogy, guidelines

5. Moss, Andrew; Carol Holder. (1988). Improving student writing: A guidebook for faculty in all disciplines. Pomona, CA: California State Polytechnic University; Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Annotation: Intended for college faculty in all disciplines, this guidebook offers practical methods and ideas intended to help teachers clarify writing assignments so that students' writing will improve, as has been seen to happen when teachers sharpen their responses to students' papers. Contents include: (1) ""Assigning Writing,"" which describes ways of designing effective assignments including journals and ungraded writing, provides 17 suggestions for making and presenting writing assignments, and includes a checklist for evaluating assignments; (2) ""Assignments That Work,"" which consists of a collection of writing assignments developed by instructors in various fields, including agricultural engineering, American studies, biology, chemistry, counseling, and criminal justice; (3) ""Essay Examinations,"" which discusses how to write effective essay questions and how to help students write better exams; (4) ""Strategies for Helping Students,"" which includes guidelines on brainstorming, research, and planning, drafting and revising, as well as a writer's checklist; (5) ""Integrating Reading and Writing,"" which examines anticipation guides, selective reading guides, graphic organizers, vocabulary previews, and student journals; and (6) ""Evaluating Students' Writing,"" which covers pre-evaluation, evaluation, paper marking, scores and scoring guides, and post-evaluation. (Eleven references are included, and appended are a sample of on-the-job writing tasks for professionals, a sample accounting assignment, and a techniques inventory for assigning writing and reading in the disciplines.) [ERIC; WAC Clearinghouse]

Keywords: WAC, assignment, journal, grading, evaluation, scale, list, checklist, essay-exam, read-write, academic, agricultural engineering, American studies, biology, chemistry, counseling, criminal-justice, commenting, pedagogy, workplace, task, essay-quality, teacher-manual, student-writing

6. Muller, Herbert Joseph. (1967). The uses of English: Guidelines for the teaching of English from the Anglo-American conference at Dartmouth College. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Keywords: English-profession, curriculum, Dartmouth Conference, writing-about-lit, mass-media, creativity, correctness, usage, talk-write, WAC, oral-presentation, guidelines

7. Pearce, Daniel L. (1983). Guidelines for the use and evaluation of writing in content classrooms. Journal of Reading 27.3, 212-218.

Annotation: In interviews with content-area school teachers, Pearce found that they are reluctant to assign writing because they have so many students and because they feel inadequate to evaluate writing. Pearce recommends responding to papers holistically, more exactly with a primary-trait approach. If students are given a rubric for the assignment, teachers can use it for quick response to drafts (a sample primary-trait rubric of four levels is provided on p. 215). Pearce also recommends a checklist (p. 216 has an example with nine criteria to be checked poor, fair, good, outstanding, superior, and not applicable). He also recommends peer evaluation and group evaluation--but recommends teachers increase their tolerance for classroom noise). RHH [Rich Haswell & Norbert Elliot, Holistic Scoring of Written Discourse to 1985, WPA-CompPile Research Bibliographies, No. 27]

Keywords: response, evaluation, peer-evaluation, rubric, list, checklist, holistic, pedagogy, paper-load, WAC, guidelines, school, content-course, primary-trait, peer-evaluation, group-evaluation

8. Stocks, Kevin D.; Ted D. Stoddard; Max L. Waters. (1992). Writing in the accounting curriculum: Guidelines for professors. Issues in Accounting Education 07.2, 193-204.

Keywords: WAC, accounting-course, needs-analysis, retraining, assignment, write-to-learn, guidelines

9. Torbe, Mike. (1976). Language across the curriculum: Guidelines for schools. London: Ward Lock Educational.

Keywords: school, WAC, Britain, guidelines