Academic Programs

What does "Writing in the Disciplines" mean?

Writing-in-the-Disciplines (WID) at CPP is an extension of the Graduate Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) policy update (2023). Writing in the Disciplines is a model for writing instruction that teaches students how to write in their chosen disciplines. Writing is a tool; thus, students must be taught where that tool is best applied. One of the best places for students to begin practicing writing for their discipline, is within their discipline. Principles of the WID movement state that writing:

  • is the responsibility of the entire academic community,
  • must be integrated across departmental boundaries,
  • must be continuous during all years of undergraduate education,
  • must promote learning, and
  • will be executed effectively within the disciplines, only when students practice the conventions of an academic discipline.

You can learn more about Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and WID at Colorado State University’s Clearinghouse Website.

Dr. Karen Tellez-Trujillo, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition is the Writing in the Disciplines Coordinator at CPP and is advised by the University Writing Committee (UWC). Her position has been put in place to support departments as they identify GWAR courses and faculty as they prepare to teach these writing-enhanced courses.

Writing-in-the-Disciplines (WID) at Cal Poly Pomona will offer faculty and staff opportunities for support and professional development in core teaching strategies. By emphasizing what lies between writing and learning, professional development will introduce participants to classroom strategies that foster critical thinking and engagement with course material as you integrate WAC/WID strategies into the classroom. Future workshops will assist faculty and staff as they prepare to:

  • draft informal, “low stakes” writing exercises,
  • draft sequenced and scaffolded writing exercises leading up to a formal, “high stakes” writing assignment,
  • build in revision and feedback of writing exercises,
  • create ways for students to reflect on their writing and learning processes,
  • find effective forms of responding to and assessing writing assignments,
  • develop strategies to discourage plagiarism and use of written generated by AI programs,
  • develop strategies to work with ELL students, and
  • develop ways to teach discipline-specific writing guidelines.

WAC Pedagogy

Learning to write and writing to learn are at the core of WAC pedagogy. In order to become better writers, students must write. The same applies to writing about course material. The more students engage with the course material, the more likely they are learning and remembering what they have been taught. Writing-in-the-disciplines is a process and product of critical thinking, as well as of problem solving. In Engaging Ideas, a foundational text of WAC pedagogy, author John Bean explains that it is equally important for students to ask whether or not the writing is clear, as well as whether or not their writing is interesting. Students should use their writing to ask themselves if what they have written shows a mind actively engaged with the problem of which they write. It is imperative that writing brings something new to readers or makes an argument. Through this inquiry-based learning environment created by writing, student engagement and learning dramatically improves.

Resources and Readings

  • Bartholomae, David and Beth Matway. University of Pittsburgh Study of Writing (2009). Drawing on extensive surveys and interviews of students and faculty, this report gives a thorough picture of the factors influencing writing development at an urban university. Key elements are chances to discuss ideas before writing, timely and supportive feedback on written work, and chances for more creativity and personal expression than academic genres seem to allow.  
  • Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom (2001). Probably the best single book on this topic. A thorough and stimulating guide to the theory and practice of handling student writing: covers designing tasks, helping students read difficult texts, using peer groups for feedback, and handling the paper load.
  • Bean, John C., David Carrithers, and Theresa Earenfight. “Transforming WAC through a discourse-based approach to university outcomes assessment.” WAC Journal 16 (2005): 5-21. Available online. A good example of small-scale outcomes research in a writing initiative.
  • Eisner, Caroline and Martha Vicinus, eds. Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age (2008). From a wide range of scholars, new ways to think about intertextuality in academic work. The final chapters offer well-grounded advice on designing assignments and handling plagiarism policies. See also Howard, below.
  • Elbow, Peter. Everyone Can Write: Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing (2000). A persuasive account of an approach focusing on the writing process. As in his earlier books (Writing with Power, Writing without Teachers), Elbow sees writing as a way to develop ideas and to find personal voice. This book also deals with program issues such as portfolio assessment (with Pat Belanoff).  
  • Elbow, Peter. “High Stakes and Low Stakes in Assigning and Responding to Writing.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning 69 (1997).  This article describes the importance of assigning low- and middle stakes writing assignments and gives tips on how to respond to what may feel like an insurmountable amount of student writing.
  • Howard, Rebecca Moore. Standing in the Shadow of Giants: Plagiarists, Authors, Collaborators (1999). An important re-thinking of the way writers use texts. Points out the relatively new idea of plagiarism as an offence; shows how student infractions are often a matter of “patchwriting” or faulty paraphrasing rather than summarizing.
  • Light, Richard J. Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds (2001). Drawing on extensive qualitative research, Light shows that Harvard students highly value the chance to work with professors and each other on developing writing competencies. He advises timely feedback, chances for oral discussion, and concentrating instruction in upper years.
  • Russell, David R. Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History, 2nd ed. (2002). Russell outlines the history of US writing programs since the 1870s in terms of social change and the development of academic specialization. He shows the theoretical and practical fallacies of reliance on first-year composition courses and makes the case for integrated writing instruction as a way to support student development and involve faculty in examining their own specialized discourses.
  • Shaughnessy, Mina. Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing.  (1977). In this seminal work, Shaughnessy explores the writing problems of underprepared freshmen and offers solutions on how to teach basic writing.
  • Stanford Study of Writing. Led by Andrea Lunsford, this multi-year longitudinal study (2000-2005) combines survey results, video interviews, and analyses of writing samples to depict the factors affecting students’ development as writers. Paul Rogers’ dissertation study emphasizes the importance of personal contact for learning.The website is replete with quotable student comments.
  • Sternglass, Marilyn S. Time to Know Them: A Longitudinal Study of Writing and Learning at the College Level (1997). An excellent example of case-study research grounded in educational theory and personal experience. Shows the social and intellectual challenges of multilingual students at City College, New York, and their various kinds of success—not always a straight path.
  • Stevens, Dannelle D. and Antonia J. Levi. Introduction to Rubrics: An Assessment Tool to Save Grading Time, Convey Effective Feedback and Promote Student Learning (2005). The title says it all! See also Walvoord and Anderson. 
  • Strachan, Wendy. Writing-Intensive: Becoming W-Faculty in a New Writing Curriculum (2008). An account of the challenges in creating a writing initiative at Simon Fraser University: outlines many successes at the course level, though the initiative has since faltered after Strachan’s retirement. Includes faculty voices, samples of teaching material, and methods for program assessment.
  • Thaiss, Chris and Terry Myers Zawacki. Engaged Writers, Dynamic Disciplines: Research on the Academic Writing Life (2006). Drawing on interviews with faculty members and students, this book reflects experiences in learning and teaching writing across the range of disciplines. The final chapter summarizes implications for teaching and program building.
  • WAC Clearinghouse: A National Journal for Writing Across the Curriculum This is a great resource for all things WAC. The WAC-journal is an annual collection of articles by educators about their WAC ideas and experiences.
  • Walvoord, Barbara E. and Virginia Johnson Anderson. Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment (1998). Lively readable examples and practical advice on the full range of classroom and administrative practices to make grading a worthwhile part of teaching: many sample assignments, marking guides (rubrics), and comments.  
  • Walvoord, Barbara E. and Lucille P. McCarthy. Thinking and Writing in College: A Naturalistic Study of Students in Four Disciplines (1990). Readable research reports on the results for both faculty and students of integrating writing into four different classrooms (business, history, psychology, and biology).
  • Wright, W. Alan and Eileen M. Herteis, eds. Learning Through Writing: A Compendium of Assignments and Techniques, 2nd ed. (2001). A collection of practical and inventive assignments from various disciplines. Amusing, stimulating, and Canadian. 
  • Zamel, Vivian and Ruth Spack, eds. Crossing the Curriculum: Multilingual Learners in College Classrooms (2004). Insightful accounts of the experiences of second-language learners from a range of perspectives.  
  • Zinsser, William. Writing to Learn (re-issue, 2005). An inspirational account of Zinsser’s visits to outstanding teachers at American liberal arts colleges who use writing in their courses.
  • https://writing.utoronto.ca/teaching-resources/readings-writing-disciplines/