WAC and the First-Year Writing Course: Selling Ourselves Short

Abstract

The relationship between writing-across-the-curriculum programs and the first-year writing program has always been a delicate one. In some institutions, WAC is considered to be simply an extension of the freshman composition course. When Beaver College introduced WAC into their college curriculum in the late 70s, the freshman composition courses were modified to include at least one assignment drawn from a discipline other than English, such as biology or political science (Kinneavy 365). Writing-intensive courses in the major were expected to reinforce the skills developed in freshman composition. Furthermore, such courses would send a message to students that freshman composition was not simply a hurdle to pass on their way to the major. In other places, however, the freshman composition course was seen as simply one element in the overall WAC program, or perhaps even an impediment to faculty acceptance of WAC. The debate over the relationship between WAC and the freshman program came to a head in 1988 when Catherine Pastore Blair declared that “the English department should have no special role in writing across the curriculum—no unique leadership role and no exclusive classes to teach—not even freshman composition” (383). In a companion article, Louise Z. Smith countered that English Departments were the ideal locus for the WAC program. The debate has continued in various forms throughout the 1990s. Most WAC directors have received their graduate education in departments of English and have a faculty appointment in that discipline. In many cases, the WAC director is also the director of the freshman writing program or the campus writing center. Promoting the WAC program is seen, then, as a logical extension of the duties associated with the freshman composition program. In other cases, the WAC program is spearheaded by a faculty member outside of English who heads a WAC committee. Obviously, having a non-English faculty member leading the charge for the WAC program can ward off the accusations that the WAC program is a “power grab” by the English department. WAC and the First-Year Writing Course: Selling Ourselves Short