The WAC Requirements

Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Requirements

A course approved for the WAC requirement must meet all of the following criteria:

 

1. Assign writing throughout the semester.

 

1. Require students to write between 3,000 words and 5,000 words (approximately 10 to 20 pages) over the course of the semester.

 

1. Teach students writing-to-learn strategies that foster students' experiences in learning and writing-to-communicate strategies that foster students' respect of readers' experiences. Include planning assignments (e.g., reading logs, pre-writing strategies) and peer reviews whenever possible.[1]

 

1. Provide instruction in discipline-appropriate forms of texts, arguments, evidence, style, audience, and citation.

 

1. Engage students in writing as a process and provide opportunities for students to improve their writing over the course of the semester. This can take different forms including scaffolded assignments, drafts and revisions, and multiple iterations of the same type of assignment (such as a lab report).

 

1. Provide students with extensive feedback on their writing and expect students to use that feedback to improve their writing in subsequent assignments. This feedback should not consist entirely of mechanical correction of punctuation and grammar. Doing so should be part of the assessment (grading) of the assignments.

 

1. Teach information literacy in a discipline appropriate context. This includes instruction and assignments that support student development in accessing and evaluating discipline-appropriate research materials and integrating them into their own work. Instructors are encouraged to collaborate with librarians on this aspect of their courses and to consult the Association of College & Research Libraries' Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education.

 

1. Assign writing in English except for 300 and 400-level courses that are specifically geared at improving writing in another language.

 

Additional criteria

 

1. In order to receive a C or better in the course, students must write at a satisfactory skill level (C or better).  If the student's writing is weak, but shows understanding of the course material, the student may be assigned a D, in which case WAC credit will not be received for the course.

 

1.  Maximum enrollment for this course is 35 or 45 with a graduate assistant.

 

 

 

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¹Writing-to-learn helps students use writing to explore many aspects of the course as well as their own reflections; these activities should foster learning at deeper levels than memorization or recitation.  Writing-to-communicate emphasizes aspects of writing (style, grammatical correctness, coherence, focus) that allow a reader to navigate the writing as he or she wishes.

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