Writing Centers and Writing Across the Curriculum Programs: Building Interdisciplinary Partnerships

by Robert W. Barnett, Jacob S. Blumner

Overview

Writing Centers have traditionally been viewed as marginalized facilities within their institutions. At the same time, faculty in all disciplines have come to stress the importance of good writing, and institutions have created Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Programs to address this concern. Often, the interests of Writing Centers conflict with those of WAC programs, and the theoretical foundations of the two may not necessarily be the same. Nonetheless, Writing Centers—whether voluntarily or involuntarily—have become more involved with efforts to promote Writing Across the Curriculum and have formed fruitful partnerships with WAC Programs. While jourbanal articles have begun to discuss these partnerships, this book offers an extended treatment of the topic. By examining the relationships between Writing Centers and WAC programs, this volume challenges the view that Writing Centers are marginalized and demonstrates how they are aggressively moving toward the curricular center of education.

Each chapter examines the evolving theoretical, practical, and institutional relationships between Writing Centers and Writing Across the Curriculum programs. By drawing from institutionally specific experiences, expert contributors present a variety of approaches for establishing and developing effective Writing Center/WAC partnerships. Included are perspectives from established and emerging theorists from all levels, including high schools, community colleges, small four-year colleges and universities, and major research institutions. The contributors accurately portray the true diversity of Writing Center/WAC partnerships and assess the compatibility of these partnerships with larger institutional missions. The volume touches on such topics as the use of computers in writing instruction, the use of student writing tutors, and the problems inherent in discipline-specific language. By deepening our knowledge of the merging of Writing Centers and WAC Programs, this book sets the foundation for more advanced future research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313306990
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/28/1999
Series:	Contributions to the Study of Education , #73
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d)
Lexile:	1500L (what's this?)

About the Author

ROBERT W. BARNETT is Assistant Professor of Composition and Rhetoric at the University of Michigan-Flint. He also directs the University Writing Center and co-directs the Writing Across the Curriculum Program. He currently serves as Chair of the Michigan Writing Centers Association and has published articles in such jourbanals as The Writing Center Jourbanal, The Writing Lab Newsletter, The Language Arts Jourbanal of Michigan, and Exercise Exchange: A Jourbanal for Writing Teachers.

JACOB S BLUMNER is Assistant Professor of the University of Michigan—Flint, where he coordinates Writing Across the Curriculum efforts and teaches composition. He also serves on the East Central Writing Centers Association Executive Board, and his work has appeared in Writing Center Perspectives and Alternatives to Grading Student Writing.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Robert W. Barnett and Jacob S Blumner
The WAC/Writing Center Partnership: Creating a Campus-wide Writing Environment by Robert W. Barnett and Lois M. Rosen
The Writing Center as Ambassador Plenipotentiary in a Developing WAC Program by Scott Johnston and Bruce W. Speck
Authority and Initiation: Preparing Students for Discipline-specific Language Conventions by Jacob S Blumner
Neither Missionaries Nor Colonists Nor Handmaidens: What Writing Tutors Can Teach WAC Faculty about Inquiry by Carol Peterson Haviland, Sherry Green, Barbara Kime Shields, and M. Todd Harper
Out of the Sea and Onto the Shoals, Or, When WAC Writing Center Directors Meet Neurotic Pride by Mark L. Waldo
When a Writing Center Undertakes a Writing Fellows Program by Richard Leahy
A Writing Center without a WAC Program: The De FactoWAC Center/Writing Center by Muriel Harris
Writing Centers as WAC Centers: An Evolving Model by Peshe C. Kuriloff
Situating Writing Centers and Writing Across the Curriculum Programs in the Academy: Creating Partnerships for Change with Organizational Development Theory by Karen Vaught-Alexander
Creating a Virtual Space: The Role of the Web in Forging Writing Center/WAC Connections by Irene L. Clark
Writing Centers/WAC in Pharmacy Education: A Changing Prescription by Eric Hobson and Neal Lerner
Writing Center or Experimental Center for Faculty Research, Discovery, and Risk Taking? by Pamela B. Childers
Writing Centers and WAC Programs as Infostructures: Relocating Practice within Futurist Theories of Social Change by Christina Murphy and Joe Law
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Thirteen articles explore the evolution of theory into practice in the institutional relationships between university writing centers and writing across the curriculum programs. Topics explored include the advantages of program partnerships, the way that students use the programs for different disciplines, how authority manifests within programs, the role of English departments, and other subjects. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

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