Vision
The CSUSB Writing Intensive Program (WI) aspires to nurture robust campus cultures of writing.
Mission
WI promotes inclusive and effective writing pedagogy, ensures student learning and success, conducts and supports research on writing pedagogy, and actively fosters campus and community partnerships. We cultivate the professional, ethical, and intellectual development of our students, faculty and staff so they thrive and contribute to a globally connected society.
Statement of WAC Principles and Practices
This Statement was endorsed by the International Network of WAC Programs (INWAC) in February 2014 and CCCC Executive Committee in December 2014.
Part One: Introduction
As one of the longest running educational reform movements in higher education in the US, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) has prospered in a variety of educational settings, from elementary and secondary education to community colleges, liberal arts colleges and research universities.
In its most general sense, WAC refers to the notion that writing should be an integral part of the learning process throughout a student’s education, not merely in required writing courses but across the entire curriculum. Further, it is based on the premise that writing is highly situated and tied to a field’s discourse and ways of knowing, and therefore writing in the disciplines (WID) is most effectively guided by those with expertise in that discipline. WAC also recognizes that students come to the classroom with a wide range of literacy, linguistic, technological, and educational experiences, but that all students can learn to become more proficient writers.
WAC as an initiative can be transformative for learning, teaching, and research. For students, WAC promotes engaged student learning, critical thinking, and greater facility with written communication across rhetorical situations. For teachers, WAC promotes thoughtful pedagogy and curriculum design as well as community among faculty that transcends disciplinary boundaries. For researchers in writing studies and across the disciplines, WAC promotes cross-disciplinary scholarship on teaching and learning, as well as scholarship on the values and ways of thinking in the disciplines and the ways those ideas and actions are communicated in writing.
For faculty and administrators seeking to build a WAC program, and for WAC program leaders new to WAC, this statement is intended as a distillation of fundamental principles and best practices based on some forty years of experience and research by professionals in the WAC field in the US.
We urge institutions committed to building an effective and sustainable WAC program to recognize the following principles:
- Writing is a highly complex and situated activity that cannot be mastered in a single course but is learned over a lifetime.
- WAC is not a “quick fix,” but an initiative that requires sustained conversations among faculty that extend beyond a single workshop or consultation.
- Though often a faculty-led initiative, WAC programs require administrative support, such as course releases for program leadership, a standing budget, and support for professional development.
Click here to view the Statement on WAC Principles and Practices in full.