Integrating Writing into the Disciplines: Risks and Rewards (original) (raw)

With W. Brock MacDonald and Margaret Procter. When we think of independent writing programs, we tend to think of sepa- ration from the English Department and creation of a new department. Such programs can take many forms, however, born out of national educational traditions as well as cultural and institutional exigencies. is chapter presents a case study of a successful Canadian independent writing program that is centrally funded and led by a faculty writing specialist, yet implemented lo- cally in collaboration with a range of participating departments. e Writing Instruction for Teaching Assistants (WIT) initiative in the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto exempli es a distinctive type of inde- pendence as a program that works across disciplines and is not limited to its own departmental perspective or structure. e program has three main goals: improving undergraduate writing instruction across the curriculum; preparing future faculty to teach writing as an integral part of their pedagogy, whatever their discipline; and disseminating cultures of writing across the institution and beyond. Its distributed structure challenges the notion that writing pro- grams must either build on or react against traditional US models of sta - ing, departmental de nitions, and funding. WIT has created new methods for cross-curricular writing instruction by sharing power and responsibility among the program’s writing specialist (who serves as coordinator), members of participating departments (including administrators, faculty, and graduate teaching assistants), and the central administrative structure that sponsors this shared work as a core element of the curriculum. One indicator of the pro- gram’s reach is that in its six years, 22 departments from the sciences, social sciences and humanities have applied and been accepted to participate. e program operates on a large scale: it currently involves about 80 undergrad- uate courses and instructors in 20 departments, 500 graduate students, and over 10,000 undergraduates. WIT has not only developed integrated writing instruction but also transformed local conceptions of writing and learning and improved teaching practices, thereby changing institutional culture, which Condon and Rutz (2012) argue is key to the survival of WAC programs and which also applies to independent writing programs of all kinds.