Writing Across the Curriculum is an educational reform that has recently been proposed for use on the UNCW campus.

“The purpose of WAC is to give students the opportunity to practice writing in classes other than freshman composition classes,” said director of composition for the English department Donald Bushman.

Writing is a fundamental part of the basic studies requirements. The problem arises as students delve farther into their area of study, when writing is no longer a large part of the curriculum. WAC would have teachers integrating writing into their classes more to give students more experience writing in their fields of study.

“You can’t be a better writer if you don’t write,” said professor of communication studies Rick Olsen.

The program was proposed after the biology department expressed concern before the faculty senate about the state of biology student’s writing.

“I feel that the writing ability of the students is not as good as is in the best interest of the students,” professor of biological sciences Dave Padgett said. “The job market is the consumer and the students are the product, and it’s the faculties job to prepare students for their future options.”

WAC focuses on “teaching to learn.” One of the goals of the program is to teach the faculty to help students write better, which will better prepare students for life outside of school. Next fall the members of the committee will start gathering information that will help them initiate WAC on campus. A student forum might also be held to gather the concerns that students have about the commencement of the WAC program.

“I think that the program could be beneficial to both the teachers and students on campus,” said UNCW senior Ryan McAlarney. “I’m majoring in marine biology and it would have been helpful to exercise my writing skills before graduate school.”

WAC is based on writing to master content specific courses and emphasizes ungraded writing and peer critiques. Writing intensive courses are small and facilitate class discussion.”Our problem,” Olsen said, “is how to establish WAC without burdening people and class size.”

The faculty senate would collect the concerns of faculty on ways to help them receive better writing from their students.The WAC educational reform movement gained momentum in the U.S. in the 1970s. The program is currently in use in universities such as NC State, East Carolina University, UNC Charlotte and Clemson.

“Writing is not something you can learn and unlearn,” Bushman said. “In order to do it well you have to practice continually.”