The WAC Clearinghouse is widely regarded as the leading Web site supporting the use of writing and speaking in courses across the curriculum. The Clearinghouse publishes articles and books of interest to the writing-across-the-curriculum community, provides a wide range of Web-based resources for instructors who wish to use writing in their courses, and supports research in the use of writing to support learning and teaching.
WAC Journals Available for Free Online
This journal is meant to be a current source of information for those interested in teaching writing and WAC programs. The articles cover a very wide range of topics, from collaboration to responding to student writing. This journal and its archives (as well as the archives of its predecessors: Academic Writing and Language and Learning Across the Disciplines) are available online at the WAC Clearinghouse for free.
This journal contains pertinent information on the practices and ideas of writing across the curriculum. Open submissions are accepted, and journal articles focus on a number of topics, such as technology in WAC and classroom application. Current and back issues of The WAC Journal are freely available at the WAC Clearinghouse.
WAC Books and Booklets Available for Free
Each section of this book is devoted to a different aspect of reading and writing across the curriculum, and is written by a professor in different discipline. The topics range from journal writing and writing programs to audience, purpose and responding to writing. The final section is an annotated bibliography for those with interest in WAC and WID programs. This book is available for free online.
Gottschalk, Katherine and Keith Hjortshoj. The Elements of Teaching Writing: A Resource for Instructors in All Disciplines. Professional sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.
This brief but comprehensive book covers nuts and bolts issues of teaching with writing such as creating informal writing activities, writing assignment design, responding to student writing, and creating rubrics. Best of all, this book is free. Simply contact your Bedford/St. Martin’s representative and ask for a copy.
This valuable resource draws from an ongoing study begun in 1997 at Harvard on student writing, instructor commentary on student writing, and the learning and teaching of writing. This publication features articles on students’ experiences with teacher commentary on their writing as well as advice for teachers on how to most effectively and efficiently respond to student writing to support learning and writing development.
Young writes, “I expect this booklet to be useful to writing program directors in English departments who often coordinate writing across the curriculum programs or who are responsible for integrating writing across the curriculum with a required first -year composition course”(1). This brief (63 pages) booklet is a valuable entry point to WAC. The book has several sections, none of which are more than 4-5 pages in length. However, Young manages to condense both theory and practice, as well as some ideas about communication, into chunks that are manageable, useful, and understandable. This book is available for free online.
The Harvard Writing Program has produced a series of booklets, available for free online, on writing in a range of disciplines (including art, anthropology, philosophy, and psychology) and on teaching writing.
A wide range of departments at Oregon State University have created guidelines for their students on writing in their majors. These guidelines are available for free on this site.