Writing Across the Curriculum in College Chemistry: A Practical Bibliography

Abstract

Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) has been a force in education for more than 25 years. Yet WAC in chemistry might seem still something of a mystery, especially for the chemist new to teaching or to the language studies teacher unfamiliar with conventions of thinking and writing in chemistry. Fortunately, teachers in higher education who wish to explore the uses of writing in chemistry have a wealth of material to draw from in the literature. Our review of that material is intended to address the needs of those teachers who want to get started using writing in their chemistry classrooms. Thus, the focus will be primarily on practical matters. We begin by pointing to studies that suggest why WAC can be useful, then turn to reports of successful approaches to using writing at all levels of the chemistry curriculum. Additional resources are listed at the end of this article.