Writing Across the Curriculum

Abstract

If one accepts the notion that people learn by doing, then it follows that if junior high and high school students are to become better writers, they must have sufficient practice. Further, they need to go beyond tasks employing simple copying and paraphrasing to those requiring critical thinking and thoughtful exposition. Since thinking cannot be separated from content, i.e., we think about something, then writing assignments need to be related to subject matter, personal concerns, or life -role demands. Finally, since writing serves to clarify thinking about subject matter, writing can enhance learning in content area courses. These were the assumptions underlying our recent investigation into content area writing assignments in secondary classrooms. The survey of high school writing assignments (Pearce and Bader), revealed that the majority of writing in content area classrooms appears to be in the form of answers to test and chapter review questions. Excluding English classes, writing as an activity to help students come to a better understanding of course content seems to be sporadic. In the present study, the high school study was extended to the junior high school to learn to what extent teachers at this level were having students write in their subject area classrooms.