Writing Across the Curriculum

The Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) initiative at Richmond primarily involves the faculty. Writing is the visible "hard evidence" of a student's independent ability to question, think, research, analyse, critique, judge, assimilate, create, plan, organise, express and present. It is a fundamental tool for discovery and for learning, empowering students to make sense of and extend their understanding of the world. For these reasons, student writing is key to every degree program at both the lower and upper divisions of the university. Faculty understand that if a student cannot write effectively or appropriately within the academic community, then that student is most seriously disadvantaged.

The WAC initiative provides a forum whereby faculty members from all programs and departments can meet at regularly convened seminars or via email to problem solve, share new techniques and strategies, compare pedagogic input and outcomes with a view to enhancing their students' ability to write and all that underpins it. The WAC initiative is also responsible for periodically surveying Richmond faculty to identify strengths and shortcomings in their students' ability to write in academic contexts. Results of such surveys feed directly into the Foundations Program and Academic Research and Writing Program. Moreover, through reports and seminars, faculty across the curriculum are encouraged and empowered to draw upon and carry forward the formative tuition conducted in these two programs.

The WAC initiative is therefore one of the unifying forces at Richmond. It works to bring together faculty from all disciplines in a focused endeavour to promote high standards of academic written work, and the use of writing in the classroom as a powerful conduit for learning.