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Welcome to Howard University's
Writing Across the Curriculum Program, an interdepartmental program
that promotes writing
to learn and learning
to write in all disciplines.
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Our
Mission |
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The
WAC program at Howard University aims to
help students "learn to write" and "write
to learn." On the one hand, WAC courses
help students master the professional conventions
of a particular discipline, while reinforcing
skills learned in Freshman English.
On the other hand, the courses foster active
learning within a discipline since writing
encourages careful reading, observing, listening,
and thinking. |
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Program Profile |
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Coordinated by the English
Department, the Writing Across the Curriculum
Program originated in the College of Arts & Sciences
at Howard University in 1991. However,
since merging with the Center for Excellence
in Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (CETLA)
in 2003, the program has served the entire
university.
In addition, the program continues to
participate in the
The International Network of Writing-across-the-Curriculum Programs (INWAC).
Writing-intensive courses in the disciplines are the core of the WAC program at Howard University. They are designed to show students that writing well is essential to success in whatever field of study or career they pursue. In the College of Arts & Sciences
and the Division of Allied Health, these courses fulfill the third writing requirement (following Freshman English 002 and 003). To enable teachers to respond to the frequent writing assignments, each course is limited to 20 students. In the Directory of Classes
and on transcripts, WAC courses are designated by a 700-level number and a -WRTG suffix.
However, many WAC faculty integrate
aspects of WAC pedagogy into their
curriculum regardless of whether they are
teaching a 700-level course or not.
The
WAC program at Howard enjoys not only faculty
but student support, as revealed by a
survey
of nearly 2,000 students who completed WAC courses at Howard.
More than 90% of the students rated the
courses highly, especially as a tool for
careful reading and critical thinking.
In focus group sessions, students explained:
"It really just helped
me to reinforce the math . . ..what I
was doing was taking what he said and
interpreting it my way so I could understand
it when I was writing." (Calculus
II)
"When you have to write
a paper and have to research a paper and
you have to revise, it forces you to internalize
certain ideas and concepts." (Black Diaspora
II)
"I can truly say that
at one point in my journal, I wrote that
I finally got it. I was excited.
I really did understand." (Ecology
Lecture/Lab)
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