Communication Across the Curriculum
About Writing Across the Curriculum at UNCG
A Writing Across the Curriculum Program has been in effect at UNCG in the College
of Arts and Sciences since 1989 with well over 500 courses approved and offered
for Writing-Intensive (WI) credit. Students whose major falls within the College
are required to take four writing intensive courses to graduate, one of which
must now be in the major. 
In the spring of 2000, the Faculty at UNCG revised the general education curriculum (GEC) requirements and extended Writing Across the Curriculum into all the professional schools on campus. All students in all the professional schools must now take two writing intensive courses, one of which must be in their major. Implementation of the new GEC marker requirements began in Fall of 2001 with incoming first year students who must fulfill these new marker guidelines.
Although WAC programs take very different form in different universities, they stem from the recognition that written language can serve as a means for both stimulating and communicating thought. These dual functions of writing - exploration and transfer, the cognitive and the rhetorical-have led us at UNCG to design writing-intensive courses that combine two broad categories of assignments: informal and formal.
A writing-intensive course has a special responsibility for improving students' ability to write in the context of learning about a particular discipline. It treats writing as means of learning as well as a skill to be learned. The course makes substantial and continuous use of writing as a way of engaging students with important questions and problems of a particular subject. Students may become familiar with the material of the course through a variety of writing assignments throughout the semester, including both formal and informal work. The program also emphasizes revision as an essential part of the writing process.
Writing the particular discourse of a discipline teaches students the thought processes as well as the writing conventions used in the field. Coaching students through the production of formal pieces of writing becomes a means of initiating them into the modes of learning and communicating common within their academic or professional field. A key premise underlying Writing Across the Curriculum is that the teachers and practitioners within a given discipline are best suited, by experience and knowledge, to introduce students to the kind of writing that they read and do.
The program conducts faculty development workshops on a regular basis to allow instructors to discuss innovative ways of using writing in the classroom. Since Spring 1985, the University Writing Center has been providing one-on-one writing assistance to its clients in the UNCG community. Support for both WAC and SAC programs comes from the office of Provost Perrin in an effort to consolidate resources and to provide faculty development in both areas.
Information and resources for UNCG faculty and students are continually updated
and made available on this website, along with guidelines and proposal forms
for writing intensive and speaking courses.
Walter Beale, Director Communication Across the Curriculum
whbeale@uncg.edu
Agnes Szarka, Program Assistant Communication Across the Curriculum
a_szarka@uncg.edu
Sara Littlejohn, WAC Faculty Development Coordinator
sjlittle@uncg.edu
Writing-Intensive GEC Committee members:
Nancy Ryckman (Committee Chair), Library
nancy_ryckman@uncg.edu
Walter Beale, English
whbeale@uncg.edu
Robert Cannon, Biology
robert_cannon@uncg.edu
Bob Hansen, College of Arts & Sciences
rchansen@uncg.edu
Colleen Kriger, History
c_kriger@uncg.edu
Larry Lavender, Dance
lelavend@uncg.edu
Sara Littlejohn, English
sjlittle@uncg.edu