Writing Across the Curriculum

Gustavus has received national recognition for its curricular innovation in writing, which combines a strong Writing Across the Curriculum program—required writing intensive courses coupled with faculty development efforts—and a thriving College Writing Center. This combination of curricular efforts, faculty development, and peer support helps ensure that both students and faculty receive support for their work. Most importantly, the Gustavus writing program embodies the College's commitment to teach effective writing skills throughout all disciplines.

Why WAC?

Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) is a pedagogical movement that gained strength in the 1980's. Our Writing Across the Curriculum program asserts that students can best learn the conventions of academic writing by taking writing intensive courses in many disciplines. By doing so, students learn the many ways in which those writing conventions reflect ways of thinking, writing, and doing research within particular fields of study. Responsibility for writing instruction is shared across the campus, and faculty work together to help students learn to express themselves with clarity and precision in every course context. WAC at Gustavus draws a great deal from "writing to learn" theories (WTL), which suggest that students can use writing to think through challenging material, internalize what they know, and express themselves more effectively and fluently.

The writing requirement is described in the Faculty Book; forms for proposing courses that carry a Writing credit can be found toward the bottom of the Curriculum Committee page. Carolyn O'Grady is the Director of the WAC program for 2006/2007.

Writing Center

Students can obtain help with their writing from highly-trained peer tutors at the Writing Center, located in 232 Confer. For more information, or to discuss ways of teaching writing effectively, contact Rebecca Taylor.