Writing Program

Phase III Report (updated 5/28/25)

The purpose of this report is to explore Wake Forest faculty’s pedagogical reasoning for their writing assignment designs in upper-level major/minor courses.

Specifically, this report describes six major categories of pedagogical reasoning as evidenced by faculty’s marginal annotations on their own writing assignment prompts:

1. Goals / Learning Outcomes
2. Features of the Textual Prompt
3. What’s Happening Outside of the Prompt
4. Movement Across Assignments / Courses
5. Rationale (outside of LOs)
6. Student Experiences / Revisions

Drawing on annotations written by 47 faculty partners across 19 departments, this report especially highlights faculty voices from every division.

In conversation with the Phase I Report and Phase II Report, this study contributes to ongoing Writing Across the Curriculum initiatives at Wake Forest. We invite our faculty partners, administrators, and all faculty across disciplines to use this report as a catalyst for further conversation about improving student writing at Wake.

Phase II Report

The purpose of this report is to explore Wake Forest faculty expectations for “good” academic writing across disciplines. Faculty characterizations of academic writing reveal some core similarities of academic writing across disciplines, as well as variations from discipline to discipline, field to field, and even journal to journal.

Specifically, this report describes:

• Faculty expectations for expert, published academic writing in their discipline
• Faculty expectations for undergraduate student academic writing in their major/minor courses
• Faculty direct comparisons between expert and undergraduate student academic writing

Drawing on surveys and interviews with 47 faculty partners across 19 departments, this report especially highlights faculty voices from every division.

In conversation with the Phase I Report, this study contributes to ongoing Writing Across the Curriculum initiatives at Wake Forest. We invite our faculty partners, administrators, and all faculty across disciplines to use this report as a catalyst for further conversation about improving student writing at Wake.

Phase I Report

The purpose of this report is to describe the why, what, and how of writing pedagogies across the disciplines at Wake Forest University.

Drawing on (1) surveys, (2) course materials, and (3) interviews with 47 faculty partners across 19 departments, this report highlights the range of motivations behind integrating writing into disciplinary courses; the types of writing projects that are assigned; pedagogical strategies for teaching writing and supporting student writers; and challenges for teaching writing and supporting student writers.

This report especially highlights faculty voices from all 19 departments, with linked appendices to full data sets.

Overall, this study and related professional development opportunities are a crucial first step in developing a range of responsive and sustainable Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) initiatives at Wake Forest. We invite our faculty partners, administrators, and all faculty across disciplines to use this report as a catalyst for further conversation about improving student writing at Wake.

Overview of Study

At the intersection of Writing Studies and Education, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) is a field of study that broadly asks (1) how writing might be used as a tool for learning and engagement and (2) how writing is a communicative tool that inscribes the ways of knowing and doing in our academic disciplines and corresponding professions. WAC scholars describe the typical written forms – or, genres, – within any academic discipline or profession as “social actions” (Miller): The regular features of journal articles, or grant proposals, or conference proceedings are what allow us to engage in an ongoing conversation with shared expectations, background knowledges, and values (Carter). In other words, writing is where knowledge is created and shared. Because different disciplines create knowledge differently, the writing looks differently, too (Bazerman). As an example, many scholars in the sciences write their journal articles in an Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion organization that reflects the experimental research process, as well as the importance of separating data and the interpretation of that data. Meanwhile, many scholars in the humanities write their journal articles with a thematic organization that moves seamlessly between evidence and analysis. Even common writing terms – “thesis,” “evidence,” “analysis,” “clarity” – can be characterized quite differently in, say, Biology than in History. Thus, writing is a fundamental part of becoming a member of a discipline or profession and engaging in its actions (Prior; Tardy).

This primary research project seeks to uncover how writing is defined, described, and taught by faculty who are part of different disciplinary communities. Understanding how writing works within various fields of study reveals the very nature of knowledge creation. Moreover, explicit and comparative descriptions of how writing works in various disciplines can improve our ability to teach newcomers (namely, students).

Data Sets

We have 47 faculty partners from across 19 departments enrolled in this study. Our current data sets include:

1.)   Faculty survey (and mirrored student survey). This survey asks about beliefs surrounding student writing, writing pedagogies, and possible resources. (Dr. Zak Lancaster is running a similar student-facing project, and we collaborated to have a mirrored survey for students.)

2.)   Course materials for upper-level courses in the major. Faculty were asked to submit syllabi, writing assignment prompts, successful and unsuccessful student writing samples, and a “real-world” equivalent of their own writing for between 2 and 4 upper-level major or minor courses that they taught recently or regularly. We have course materials for 83 upper-level courses.

3.)   Faculty interviews. These one-on-one interviews lasted between 45 and 95 minutes long. The interview asked faculty members to describe the role of writing in their discipline, how they write in their discipline, why they assign writing in their major courses, etc.

Next Steps (updated 5/28/25)

Phase IV Report: Faculty as Writers

How do faculty approach writing projects in their discipline? This phase details how faculty begin writing projects, how they manage their writing process, how they make decisions while drafting, how they seek and receive feedback, etc. This phase further maps these writing practices onto faculty’s writing pedagogies. This report is slated for publication Spring 2026.

Extended Rationale

In the Wake Forest College Curriculum Review Committee Report (CCRC) for the Committee on Academic Planning (CAP) that was presented in May 2019, the CCRC found that 80% of surveyed Wake faculty ranked “writing clearly and effectively” as one of the two most important learning outcomes for Wake students. One Writing Program recommendation out of that finding was to phase out AP exemptions for WRI 111, which is currently (and excitingly) underway. The other Writing Program recommendation, though, was to “add a second ‘intensive’ writing requirement for all students, taken after their first year, preferably in the major” (p. 8). This recommendation was made by the Writing Program because, as research in our field strongly suggests, a writing course in the first year is meant to be an introduction to academic writing; students then need continued writing instruction through their second, third, and fourth years to fully develop their ability to write across genres and especially in the genres of their discipline/profession. Every discipline defines “good” writing differently – historians build arguments quite differently than biologists. Thus, we cannot expect an introductory writing course alone to give students a tailored perspective on writing for each of their varied fields. Moreover, research tells us that student writing development happens recursively over time, and writing is one of our most powerful pedagogical tools for engaged learning. Writing, then, works on two pedagogical levels for our students: (1) write-to-learn, which describes writing as a tool for thinking and engagement, and (2) learn-to-write, which describes writing as a tool to communicate within and across our disciplines.

Researching how these two pedagogical approaches work is the purview of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), a scholarly and programmatic endeavor situated at the intersection of Education and Writing Studies. WAC scholars study how disciplinary knowledge is created and shared through writing, and they also consider how disciplinary values become embedded in a discipline’s written genres. Perhaps most importantly, WAC scholars use their research about how writing works in different academic disciplines (or subject-specific workplaces) to better support faculty who integrate and teach writing in their courses for both write-to-learn and learn-to-write approaches. Integrating and teaching writing is easier said than done: Just because one can write as a philosopher does not necessarily mean one knows how to teach others how to write as a philosopher. WAC scholars identify this phenomenon as the difference between “practical knowledge” (knowing how to do something) and “discoursal knowledge” (being able to articulate the doing). Thus, as a curricular reform movement, WAC programs across U.S. and international universities often take on initiatives such as faculty workshops and writing-intensive course management. At Wake Forest, Dr. Zak Lancaster has already begun this work with the Writing Associates Seminar. Based on similar projects completed at other universities, Dr. Alisa Russell was hired in 2020 with the charge of collaborating with Dr. Lancaster to expand these initiatives.

This primary research project, then, is designed to collect more information from a wide range of Wake faculty about how writing is understood, assigned, taught, and assessed across the disciplines. Before we can move about shaping an upper-level writing requirement, we first have to know faculty goals for student writers and the challenges they face in reaching those goals – all of which will most likely vary across disciplines. What do chemistry faculty want their students to be able to write (or do through writing), and how might these goals differ from or overlap with goals in music, sociology, and business? In other words, we need to build curricula based on research findings, so this study will most likely shift or refine what kind of vertically scaffolded writing instruction is needed for students as they move through the Wake curriculum. In this study, we are especially interested in uncovering how classroom writing assignments – such as lab reports, observational reports, concert reviews, press releases, research papers, etc. – relate to their “real world” counterparts that faculty write in their daily work. These findings will help close the gap between practice and discoursal knowledge.

Overall, this study is crucial first step in developing a range of WAC initiatives at Wake Forest. In a recent but already landmark book in the field, Sustainable WAC, the authors emphasize that WAC initiatives are only sustainable if scholars begin with an “understanding” phase, which includes determining the campus mood around writing, mapping institutional systems, and noting various ideologies toward writing. Only after this thorough investigation should WAC leaders move on to planning concrete initiatives, curricula, or programs.

Dr. Alisa Russell, Principle Investigator

Alisa joined the English Department & Writing Program at Wake as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2020. Her research explores how writing works in the world, and she especially focuses on how writing plays a role in shaping institutional access. Moreover, Alisa turns that knowledge of how writing works in the world back to the classroom so we might better teach it and prepare students for their various spheres. Her work has appeared in journals such as Written Communication, Composition Forum, The WAC Journal, Across the Disciplines, Composition Studies, and Pedagogy. Alisa is an Executive Board Member of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (AWAC), and she currently serves as Chair of the WAC Summer Institute Committee.