Writing across the Curriculum: The Myths, the Realities
By Deborah Schlacks, Coordinator of Writing across the Curriculum
Here are three examples of myths and the accompanying realities about writing across the curriculum.
Myth #1: Students in my class should have learned to write adequately some time “before
now.”
Reality #1: Writing is a craft, so one never stops learning it. Writing is also a powerful means
of critical thinking and of learning, so one should never stop working at it.
I write differently and (I think!) better today than I did ten years ago. I’ll bet many of you would say the same thing of
yourselves. Practitioners of other crafts—visual artists, musicians, athletes (arguably a craft), and so on—would
probably tell us something similar about the evolution of their crafts.
Writing is also, in many significant respects, “context sensitive.” For example, a student who has learned to write a good
essay for an introductory humanities class probably will not know how to write a good lab report without instruction in
the genre. (In addition, as students learn to write something that is new and different, they may at first actually make
more “errors” than they did before in more familiar territory. Errors in this case are definitely a sign of learning .)
Most importantly, it is not just a matter of mastery of a separate craft. Writing is a powerful way to learn the subject
matter of a course. Thus it should not be an “add-on” to a class but a way to have students learn what it is they are
supposed to learn in the class.
Myth #2: It’s all (or almost all) about grammar.
This myth may manifest itself in any of the following ways:
“I see students making so many grammar errors and have to spend a lot of time correcting them.”
Or, “I see students making so many grammar errors so I don’t want to have them write papers because then I’d have
to teach them about those errors and/or spend lots of time correcting them on their papers.”
Reality #2: It’s not Grammar across the Curriculum; it’s Writing across the Curriculum!
Writing is about ideas, use of evidence, organization, style, attention to audience and purpose, and many other things,
grammar among them.
Furthermore, students do not learn to make fewer errors from a teacher’s correcting all their errors for them,
particularly if the corrections are frequent (and thus overwhelming) and done on a final draft when there will be no
chance for students to act upon the information they have received. A better idea is to simply note, on the rough draft
rather than the final draft, where (some) errors are (circle them or put a check in the margin) and have students take
responsibility for seeking further information on the nature of the errors (if they do not recognize them by now—quite
often, they will) and correcting the errors themselves. (This method is called “minimal marking.”)
Myth #3: A long term paper is the sine qua non of academic writing.
This myth may manifest itself in any of the following ways:
”My class is too big to permit me to grade term papers. So writing is ‘out’ for this class.”
Or, “my class is too crowded with other teaching demands for me to have time to give students the guidance
they’d need to write research papers for it. So writing is ‘out’ for this class.”
Or, “term papers just are not important in this type of class/discipline. So writing is ‘out’ for this class.”
Reality #3: There are many other valuable types of writing for students to do.
If you are teaching an upper-level class for majors in your field, yes, you probably do want to have them write
research papers, at least in some such classes within most majors. But say you are teaching a general-education class.
Some of your students have no doubt not taken Writing 102, in which the research paper is taught. (Remember that
gen-ed classes have no prerequisites. Entering freshmen are probably among your students in such classes.) Even if
they have, the specific requirements for a research paper in your discipline are no doubt unknown to these students.
There are, fortunately, many great alternatives. Which you choose depends on the level of the course, your learning
goals for the course, and the size of the class. (In a very large class, you will likely have to choose a short genre so that
you will have the time to respond to the work. In a small class, you may be able to have students write longer pieces if
you find such an assignment fits your goals.) Here are some ideas:
--write-to-learn activities, such as reading responses, journals, microthemes, explanations of one’s problem-solving
process
--short assignments useful for teaching research writing: summaries of professional articles, with the added element of
the student’s discussion of how the information and ideas in the article mesh with what is being taught in the class;
analyses or evaluations of journal articles or essays comparing and contrasting two different journal articles; short
arguments that require use of research data for support
--short assignments that are in real-life genres, such as the music department’s program notes assignment
(Most of these ideas are from Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical
Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001. It is in our library.)