Writing Across The Curriculum

Abstract

This article describes a research project intended to yield data about the state of writing across the curriculum at one urban college campus site. The research included collecting writing from all courses of a random sample of freshmensenior students during one college semester. Writing was coded and categorized according to audience and function. Data were analyzed, providing insight on, for example, audiences and functions by subject area and year and relationships between audiences and functions. Results indicate that teachers in the role of evaluators are the most prevalent audience for student writing and copied note taking, the most common writing function performed by students. Ultimately, the authors conclude by recommending a greater amount of writing to multiple audiences and for various functions.

A Program for Improving Undergraduate Psychology Students' Basic Writing Skills

“…The writing-across-the-curriculum movement encourages an increased focus on teaching both basic and technical writing skills (Goddard, 2002;Haug, 1996;Lester et al, 2003;Radmacher & Latosi-Sawin, 1995;Russell, 1997;Stock, 2001). Writing instruction can foster intellectual growth by (a) giving students the opportunity to practice writing and receive feedback from the instructor (McGovern & Hogshead, 1990), (b) allowing students to critique papers written by their peers (Brakel Olson, 1990), and (c) providing students added opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned in the course (Bender as cited in McGovern & Hogshead, 1990; Blevins-Knabe as cited in McGovern & Hogshead, 1990).…”

Addressing the “My Students Cannot Write” Dilemma: Investigating Methods for Improving Graduate Student Writing

“…As difficult as it may be to concede, the responsibility for changing students' focus from grades to learning lies with the instructor. When examining the writing across their university, Lester et al (2003) noted the teacher was overwhelmingly the audience in students' writing and suggested students have learned to place teachers' knowledge above all other knowledge and to…”

“…The movement for writing across the curriculum was meant to connect writing to learning within disciplines (Lester et al, 2003). In fact, Monroe (2003) argued disciplines are an integral part of encouraging writing to play a role in undergraduate and graduate education at a university.…”

Student-Made Video Projects in a Computer Technology Course

“…Writing is the process through which students think on paper, explore ideas, raise questions, attempt solutions, uncover processes, build and defend arguments, brainstorm, introspect, and figure out what is going on. 9 Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own.…”