Welcome to Wac: Writing in the Disciplines
Learn about Writing Across the Curriculum and what counts as "good writing" across various disciplines.
The WAC movement began in the 1970s in response to an increasing number of student writers who struggled with college writing. Over 50 years later, as university writing adapts to changes like AI, this sentiment rings true. But it’s also true that WAC pedagogy is responding to one of the central challenges of writing: “good writing” is hard to define, and more often than not, what counts as “good writing” varies across disciplines, sub-fields, faculty, and students.
To account for these differences, WAC includes multiple orientations to writing, including writing to learn, learning to write, and writing in the disciplines [link those to next page]. WAC also focuses on pedagogical tools that are true across disciplines, like understanding that writing is a complex process connected to thinking. Finally, WAC aims to support faculty and students through faculty development opportunities, student support services like the Writing Center, and by helping faculty and students make connections with each other.
To learn more, read here: WAC Clearinghouse: An Introduction to Writing Across the Curriculum
Works Cited
McCleod, Susan. “The Pedagogy of Writing Across the Curriculum.” In A Guide
to Composition Pedagogies. Eds. Tate, Rupiper, and Schick. Oxford UP, 2001. 149-164.
All writing is situational, and what counts as "good writing" varies between situations, genres, and disciplines. A first-year student writing a book review for a history class will write differently than a tenured professor submitting a NSF grant proposal--but that doesn't mean they can't both produce "good writing"!
To learn more about writing across situations and disciplines, watch this video on discourse: Good writing is about discourse.
For tips on how to teach writing in various disciplines, watch this video on successful disciplinary participation: Three aspects of successful disciplinary participation.
Two touchstones of WAC theory and pedagogy are writing to learn and writing in the disciplines.
Writing to Learn
The writing to learn approach refers to the idea that writing is a method for learning. In this framework, students complete short, informal writing activities and assignments that allow them to think through important ideas from the class. This kind of writing improves critical thinking and comprehension while giving students a chance to work through new, difficult, or confusing concepts. Examples of writing to learn assignments include annotations, summaries, response papers, problem analyses, practice tests, and journals.
Writing in the Disciplines (WID)
Writing in the Disciplines (WID) refers to writing that meets discipline-specific conventions, formatting, and style. A core tenet of this approach is that “good writing” means something different in every discipline, and part of effective writing instruction is teaching students the conventions, formatting, and style of “good writing” in their particular discourse community. WID activities and assignments are meant to introduce students to the thinking and writing that is valued in their discipline while giving students an opportunity to practice communicating in their discipline. Examples of WID assignments vary widely between disciplines, but might include things like lab reports, annual business reports, project proposals, case studies, and journal articles.
Ideas for integrating writing-to-learn and WID into your writing instruction
Improve student comprehension and prepare students to write in their discipline by:
*Incorporate low-stakes, informal writing activities and assignments frequently. These can be impromptu (in-class summaries or responses to readings), ungraded (reading annotations), and practical (summarize key ideas from a prior class; define key terms; practice for an upcoming class).
*Don’t assume your students know the rules and expectations of your discipline. Instead, introduce formatting and style conventions early and simply. In addition to reading academic writing from your field, have students practice discipline conventions through discipline-specific writing activities and assignments (ongoing lab notebooks; summarizing and analyzing professional articles; working in groups on mock or real project or grant proposals).
Generative AI is transforming higher education. This is true across all disciplines and in every course, and especially in COM classes. CxC at UW is committed to supporting instructors in understanding and integrating technologies into their COM classes, including generative AI. To guide this work, we have adopted guiding principles on AI from the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (AWAC). The guiding principles are quoted below, and the full statement is linked.
Guiding Principles for AI and Writing Across the Curriculum
* Champion writing as a human-centered activity grounded in rhetorical judgement and critical thinking;
* Recognize AI tools as sites of struggle;
* Ensure inclusive, equitable writing instruction;
* Address academic integrity through critical engagement;
* Honor faculty agency and disciplinary context;
* Develop transparent, flexible institutional policy informed by educators;
* Empower writing across the curriculum programs and WAC professionals to lead.
You can read the full statement here: AWAC Statement on AI and WAC (2025)
Developing Writing Courses: Helpful writing Theory
Regardless of what discipline you're writing in, the pedagogical frameworks described below can improve student learning and assignments.
Perhaps the most helpful, big picture advice for improving writing instruction is to remember that learning to write takes a long time. Writing isn’t a skill that one picks up in a semester; instead, students must engage meaningfully with the process of writing in many assignments, in many classes, in many disciplines, for many, many years. Integrating a process approach to writing is one way you can help your students improve as writers over the course of their academic career.
A process approach to writing is a framework that emphasizes the steps involved in writing instead of focusing on a final product. With this mindset, writing isn’t a skill that students automatically do or don’t have; it’s a step-by-step approach to a task that any student can learn. This approach breaks down the skills needed to complete a writing assignment and helps students build those skills over time through multiple drafts of writing. By focusing on the process and not the product, teachers can emphasize to their students that good writing takes time, effort, feedback, and multiple revisions.
While the main goal of a process approach to writing is helping students understand and practice brainstorming, drafting, revising, and editing, teaching writing this approach has a few benefits for instructors, including better writing assignments and saving time on evaluating final work. It also encourages collaboration and teaches students to seek and embrace feedback on their work.
For a short video about the benefits of a process approach, watch here: A process approach to writing.
Ideas for integrating a process approach into your writing instruction
*Break down writing assignments into multiple smaller, intermediate assignments to help students understand how they can take a step-by-step approach in your class. (For example: as part of a final research report, ask students to submit outlines, research, data analysis, and rough drafts before you collect the final.)
*Work with students on each step of this process to improve students’ final product. This means working with students as they develop a writing assignment well before the final due date. You might help students develop research questions or thesis statements, respond to student outlines when they’re first trying to articulate their ideas, or review rough drafts of an assignment. The goal here is to look at some part of their writing BEFORE they submit the final assignment so you can guide them towards a strong final product.
*Make time for collaborative work so students can give, receive, and respond to feedback. You can do this by actually giving students time in class to work together on drafts; or you can assign peer review of works-in-progress as homework; or you can do things like encourage students to work with tutors, TA’s, or the Writing Center. What matters here is that you build time into the assignment schedule for students to get feedback before it’s time to polish the final piece.
Regardless of what discipline you're writing in, writing and rhetoric go hand-in-hand. There is a lot to say about writing and rhetoric. People often think of rhetoric as a bad thing, saying things like, “Oh, it was just fancy rhetoric,” or “I’m tired of all the political rhetoric.” Though it has a reputation for manipulation and deceit, rhetoric is actually a framework for how we use language. Simply put, rhetoric refers to our ability to communicate clearly and effectively to a given audience in a given situation.
Almost any modality can be rhetorical: written text, oral presentations, posters, newsletters, social media campaigns, and correspondence like email and texting all involve a specific situation, a specific audience, and the creator’s purpose in making that text. This is why it is helpful to unpack rhetorical context when teaching communication.
The rhetorical context refers to five elements: author, audience, purpose, genre, and context. Helping students understand these elements leads to stronger communication (and stronger assignments!). For example, having a clear idea of the target audience helps writers tailor their message through tone, language, and content. Similarly, knowing the conventions within a specific genre helps writers adhere to genre expectations.
Watch this short video to learn more: Unpacking rhetorical context.
Ideas for integrating rhetoric and rhetorical context into your writing instruction
Helping students understand the rhetorical context that surrounds the act of communicating leads to stronger assignments. You can do this by:
*Don’t assume that students are familiar with the purpose, audience, or genre of writing in your discipline. Students often have conceptions from previous writing experiences that don’t quite match the university setting.
*Clearly address how these elements commonly appear in your discipline. Spend time in class discussing genre conventions, like how to organize a lab report; or help your students clearly identify a specific target audience when they are brainstorming topics.
*Address these elements in your assignment prompts and assessment. You can do this by imagining an audience for an assignment; providing important context for the assignment; and giving feedback to how well students do things like meet the genre expectations of your discipline.
Teaching for transfer is a pedagogical framework that centers on concepts and skills. In the words of Kara Taczak, transfer is "the ability to take knowledge and practices learned about writing in one context and repurpose or reframe that knowledge and practice to help you in another context" (Taczak 2021). The idea of teaching for transfer is that whether or not a student produces a good final product for your class is less important than whether the student learns the skills to apply to other classes or situations. So, while it’s great when students submit strong assignments, it’s more important that students can transfer skills from your class to future writing situations.
To learn more about how you can integrate transfer into your writing assignments and classes, watch this video: The goal of writing instruction is transferable skills.
Works Cited
“The Importance of Transfer in Your First Year Writing Courses.” Kara Taczak, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, vol. 4, Parlor Press, 2021.
Assignments, Rubrics, and feedback
Resources for developing COM assignments and responding to student writing.
Well-designed writing assignments can be incorporated into all classes. Whether it's a formal, "high stakes" assignment, like a final paper, or informal, "low stakes" assignments or activities with little or no impact on a student's grade, a thoughtfully designed writing assignment is an opportunity for students to feel participate in communication in their discipline. The chapters below provide theory and tips for formal and informal assignments. CxC is also happy to consult on writing assignments at any point throughout the semester.
Evaluating student writing can be a time-consuming and sometimes fraught process, especially as what counts as 'good writing' differs across situations, genres, and disciplines. Designing thoughtful rubrics is one way for instructors to clearly communicate expectations to students. Rubrics can empower students who are attempting to learn a teacher's specific expectations. They can also make the evaluation process easier -- and perhaps even enjoyable -- for instructors.
A central part of WAC theory is understanding that errors, especially grammatical errors, are part of the writing process. Furthermore, marking every grammatical error in a piece of student writing can distract from the larger and more important elements of writing, like quality of argument, strength of evidence, and organization.
To understand why errors are actually a sign of good writing, and for tips on helping students edit for errors, watch this video: Understanding why students make errors.
Whether we are evaluating work to assign a grade or guiding students through the revision process, at some point, teaching writing means responding to student writing. Thinking about feedback as part of the learning is one way for instructors and students to appreciate the potential of the writing process instead of focusing on errors in an end product.
Incorporating revision assignments, reflection assignments, rubrics, and peer review are some ways to improve feedback on student writing. To learn abou these and more, watch this short video: Possible approaches to feedback.
For tips on how to keep the work of responding to students managable, watch this video: How to keep feedback manageable.
COM @ UW: Understanding the COM sequence
Tips and tricks for developing COM I, II, and III courses that meet the students learning outcomes for UW's COM sequence.
COM1
In general, COM1 provides an introduction to college-level communication. It focuses heavily on written communication, promotes critical approaches to reading, and develops students’ understanding of appropriate purpose, structure, and support in academic communication. This course also introduces students to general distinctions between various oral, written, and digital modes of communication.
COM2
This course will continue to develop students’ transferable communication skills (especially oral communication) while moving students towards discipline-specific communication activities.
A COM2 that is designed primarily for students in a specific major may fit best in courses (preferably at the 1000- or 2000-level) that introduce students to interdisciplinary ways of knowing and/or that engage students in applying disciplinary knowledge and modes of communication.
A COM2 that is open to students across majors may be more focused on cross-disciplinary habits than on disciplinary conventions. These courses will help students develop foundational oral communication skills while continuing to promote practice with written communication tasks.
In terms of digital communication, COM2 courses should help students begin to identify and use those digital habits, skills, and knowledge which can help students to compose, critically analyze, and present information using digital media.
COM3
Though this course will continue to refine generally valued communication skills, the focus of an embedded COM3 should be on developing students’ understanding of and experience with oral, written, and digital communication tasks that are most central to their success in their academic or professional careers. Senior capstone courses as well as other courses which ask students to understand and practice appropriate disciplinary discourse(s) may be especially good fits for the COM3 designation.
A COM3 that is open to students across majors will naturally be focused on cross-disciplinary communication skills. It may also have a heavier emphasis on common professional forms of oral, written, and digital communication.
In terms of digital communication, COM3 courses will help students continue to compose, critically analyze, and present information, using digital media in ways most valuable to their disciplinary and professional success as communicators.
As part of the COM approval process, instructors need to describe the ways they will achieve and assess student outcomes. For activity, instruction, and assignment ideas, and for language to help with each part of the approval form, see this document: Developing COM Classes
From introductory lessons in COM1 to refining discipline-specific and career-oriented skills in COM2 and COM3, each COM course needs to incorporate activities, instruction, and assignments attentive to written, oral, and digital communication skills. For tips and tricks on integrating each one, see the documents below:
