College graduates in
all fields who face complex thinking assignments and
critical communication tasks know that sound writing
and reading skills form the basis of success in almost
every profession. Because we see the
importance of this idea, the
College of Arts and Sciences has been making a
concerted effort to give writing a more prominent role
in the intellectual life of our students.
We are striving to
accomplish this goal by organizing our Writing
Across the Curriculum program, which is committed
to helping Arts and Sciences faculty develop and teach
writing intensive courses. These "W" courses
concentrate on helping students communicate in the
patterns of inquiry of each discipline and increase
their competence in written expression.
Through WAC, we
emphasize writing, especially informal writing, as a
tool for students to learn course content and for
faculty to accomplish course goals.
WAC’s
Aims--
• to
provide students with practical experience in
writing in the post-college arena; it aims to equip
students with writing skills that will enhance their
chances for success in whatever career or advanced
degree program they undertake after earning their
Bachelor’s degree at West Georgia.
• to embody
interdisciplinary writing—the cross-disciplinary
nature of WAC requirements will ensure that students
are able to adapt to different styles according to
context/field.
• to provide
students with experience in using writing as a
method of critical inquiry: reflection, abstract
analysis, questioning, further reflection, revision,
conclusion formulation/articulation.
• to
enhance (as opposed as to replace)
the teaching of disciplinary content by
providing the framework in which students can
articulate that content with technical
precision, skill, focus, mastery of appropriate
voice and/or style, and clarity of purpose.
WAC
Premises for Teaching
We use writing to learn
new and difficult material, to make connections and
discoveries, and to solve problems.
We use writing to
communicate to others what we know and what we have
learned.
We use writing to
educate engineers, historians, and musicians to read,
think, write, speak and solve problems like engineers,
historians, musicians.
The WAC Requirements for Students are:
--
to complete ENGL 1101 and 1102 (or the equivalent)
with a grade of C or better--these Freshman
Composition courses are
prerequisites to all "W" courses.
-- to complete at least two
3000/4000 level W courses for a total of six hours; at least
three hours of the above must be in the major.
Because ENGL 1101 and 1102 are prerequisites for all
WAC Courses, a WAC faculty member should expect his
or her students to have mastered the basic skills of
reading, analyzing, and interpreting college-level
material; identifying and articulating themes and
subtext in readings; recognizing and formulating a
competent thesis statement or working hypothesis;
writing effective introductions and conclusions;
writing varied, coherent sentences that flow
smoothly and logically, and are mechanically
precise; coherently organizing an essay that has a
clear, persuasive chain of logic; supporting
arguments and sub-points with relevant evidence from
primary and secondary sources; employing sentences
that clearly express ideas in Academic English; and
using a college-level vocabulary.