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An Overview of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and Communication Across the Curriculum (CAC)* Clyde Moneyhun, English Department, Boise State University erin mcclellan, Communication Department, Boise State University WAC as a philosophy CAC as a philosophy When students write, they learn material better (also known as “writing to learn” or WTL). WAC research shows that students who write about course material retain more details, think more critically, perform better on exams, and make higher grades. To cultivate a speech competence requires multiple occasions of performance that build incrementally on previous achievements. Instructors focus on one practice, or an integrated set of practices, that can be identified and elaborated through the course of the semester. Students recognize and become habituated to developing this skill. Students keep learning to write across their careers, from high school preparation for college to first composition to writing intensive courses in the major to the writing mentorships of graduate theses and dissertations. Students’ writing skills grow across their careers and can be nurtured at every step. The learning pay-off comes when students actually see their own performance from the perspective of an "other" point of view, and so develop the habit of constructing their discourse from that "other" position. Every discipline has its own uses for writing, its own standards, its own conventions. The best place for students to learn disciplinary standards and conventions is courses in the disciplines. Help students see that communication competence is a life-time learning for which students are being given the beginning building blocks. WAC as a pedagogy CAC as a pedagogy: Every classroom can be improved through the incorporation of writing; however, not every classroom will incorporate the same kind of writing, and not every teacher needs to respond to student writing in the same way. Provide systematic reflective feedback opportunities from multiple sources: (a) teacher comments, modeling, and evaluations (b) student self-evaluation (personal reflection, video) (c) response from other students (oral/written feedback, debate, modeling) The most helpful writing is embedded in the process of learning. Writing in a disciplinary course works best when it is designed to help accomplish a teacher’s pedagogical goals, from coverage of material Thoroughly analyze and discuss the elements of the competency as a framework for 1 to problem-solving skills to critical or “synthetic” thinking. learning. This accomplishes two things: (1) It gives students who have difficulty mastering the ability concrete footholds for measuring improvement, and (2) it shows students who take the competence for granted how to understand and expand their abilities. Evaluation instruments become not just a grading tool but a learning tool. WAC as a curriculum CAC as a curriculum WAC is often institutionalized in the undergraduate curriculum, for example in the form of WIC (Writing Intensive Courses), WID (Writing in the Disciplines), and here at BSU in CID (Communication in the Disciplines) courses. Help students see the value of what they are learning and their degree of progress. Preview/review at beginning and end of semester to make salient the distance travelled. WAC as a discipline CAC as a discipline WAC is a field with a thirty-year history of awareness of itself as a field, its own disciplinary assumptions, controversies (or challenges to the paradigms), specialized jargon, canon of classic texts, journals, and annual conferences. The National Communication Association writes about the role of communication in General Education: Once students have begun to have confidence in their capability, provide external To facilitate writing as a curricular idea, models and benchmarks of excellence, so that WAC often entails faculty development students: through presentations, workshops, and (a) connect what they are learning with individual consultations. valuable accomplishment out in the 'real world' (b) have an inspiring model to emulate The most successful WAC efforts are those (c) see the range between basic progress and in which leadership roles in the WAC effort are possible mastery played by faculty from across the campus. WAC research has amassed data about learning styles, cognition and metacognition, discourse conventions, discourse communities, and more: information that is useful to anyone interested in enhancing students’ learning. WAC as a field is interdisciplinary by nature. It draws on many fields for its theories “To become competent communicators, students must understand the role of their communication choices and behaviors within their social context, whether public or private, with large audiences or with individual partners, within cultures and across cultures. In addition, they should understand the factors that influence their decision-making, and the factors that affect the potential success or failure of their communication efforts. They will need to learn how to translate their goals 2 and its research methodologies, including composition pedagogy, education and educational psychology, sociology and educational sociology, ethnography, linguistics, language philosophy, and the rhetoric of science. as communicators into effective messages. Contemporary students need to be aware of the potential of new media and emerging information technologies both to enhance and impair the quality of communication. Above all, it is imperative that students are introduced to the complex ethical issues that will face communicators in a multicultural and technologically complex society.” (source: http://www.natcom.org/Default.aspx?id=146&libID=167) * Much of the information provided here is adapted from a list originally written by Associate Professor of Communication John Arthos, Denison University. 3