Direct from the Disciplines: Writing Across the Curriculum

What is possible when the impetus to improve students' writing comes not from the administrative level but from faculty members in departments across campus? In Direct from the Disciplines, representatives from a broad range of disciplines at Quinnipiac University recount how they worked together to bring about a writing-across-the-curriculum program that really works.

Professors from departments in business, the humanities, the sciences, computer science, and occupational therapy as well as administrators describe the theoretical and subject-specific challenges they faced in changing the culture of writing in their classrooms and on their campus. Together their essays build a consensus about which practices and strategies for implementation are essential in achieving success with WAC. Their ideas are backed by example writing assignments, samples of student work, and descriptions of support services that are grounded in the reality of teaching and sustaining WAC.

Robert A. Smart is Professor of English and Writing Program Director for Quinnipiac University. Before coming to Quinnipiac, he taught at Bradford College and the University of Maine. He is the founding editor of The Writing Teacher and the author of The Nonfiction Novel (UPA, 1985) and numerous articles on Gothic and Irish literature. He lives in Middletown, Connecticut, with his wife Elizabeth, his sons Matthew, Adam and Micah, and his daughter Jamie.