Demythologizing Language Difference in the Academy: Establishing Discipline-Based Writing Programs - Softcover

Waldo, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805847367 ISBN 13: 9780805847369

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

In this volume, Mark Waldo argues that writing across the curriculum (WAC) programs should be housed in writing centers and explains an innovative approach to enhancing their effectiveness: focus WAC on the writing agendas of the disciplines. He asserts that WAC operation should reflect an academy characterized by multiple language communities--each with contextualized values, purposes, and forms for writing, and no single community's values superior to another's.

Starting off with an examination of the core issue, that WAC should be promoting learning to write in the disciplines instead of writing to learn, Waldo proposes:
*housing WAC in comprehensive writing centers independent of any other department;
*using dialogue and inquiry rather than prescriptive techniques in the WAC program's interaction with faculty in other disciplines; and
*phasing out writing assessment that depends on one test measuring the writing abilities of students from all disciplines.

In the process of making his case, Waldo discusses tutor training, faculty consultancy, and multilayered assessment programs. In addition to presenting the theoretical and practical advantages of discipline-based WAC programs, he also offers clear and compelling evidence from his own institution that supports the success of this approach to writing instruction.

Demythologizing Language Difference in the Academy: Establishing Discipline-Based Writing Programs will be of interest to writing program and WAC administrators; writing center administrators; graduate students studying composition; and educators and graduate students involved in WAC initiatives, research, and study.

About this title

About the Author

Karen Fog Olwig is a Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her main research has examined the role of family relations in migration processes in the Caribbean, North America and Europe, working with narrative analysis of life stories. Birgitte Romme Larsen gained her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2011, and is now an external lecturer there. Her research focused on the role of 'the family' and domestic routines in integration process involving refugee families settled in rural Denmark. Mikkel Rytter is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University, Denmark. He has done extensive research on family and marriage among Pakistanis in Denmark. His current research is concerned with Sufism and transnational spirituality.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0805847367
• ISBN 13: 9780805847369
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 222