The WAC Casebook

Description

The WAC Casebook: Scenes for Faculty Reflection and Program Development is an invaluable resource for instructors in any discipline who want to incorporate writing effectively into their courses and curriculums. Editor Chris M. Anson brings together forty-five actual or highly realistic scenarios that anticipate the range of situations instructors typically confront in writing across the curriculum programs. The cases are deliberately open-ended; they pose complex and engaging questions that encourage readers to become more reflective about their teaching. Each scene ends with provocative discussion questions and suggestions for further reading. The book covers such key topics as writing to learn; designing effective writing assignments; responding to and evaluating student writing; coaching writing; writing and new technologies; apprenticeship and the role of graduate students; and program development. Also addressed is the issue of working across disciplines with faculty who may share different views of writing and how it is best taught or learned. A list of Web-based resources is included in an appendix. Ideal for instructors involved in workshops, seminars, and other faculty-development efforts, The WAC Casebook is also an excellent text for graduate students in composition and rhetoric programs or in teacher-education programs.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Barbara Walvoord
Introduction: Reflection, Faculty Development, and Writing Across the Curriculum: The Power of Scene, Chris M. Anson
PART ONE. Writing to Learn: Scenes of Intellectual Growth
1. The Misbegotten Journal of Dennis Wong, Toby Fulwiler
2. Writing for Empathy, Patricia Connor-Greene, Hayley Shilling, and Art Young
3. Writing Intensity, Chris M. Anson
4. WAC Meets WMS: Not Love at First Sight, Hephzibah Roskelly
5. What's Appropriate?, Monica Stitt-Bergh, Thomas Hilgers, and Joan Perkins
PART TWO. Effective Assignments: Scenes of the Craft
6. Great Assignment, but Nobody's Happy, David A. Jolliffe
7. Trudy Does Comics, Chris M. Anson
8. Who Has the Power?, Christine Farris
9. Pieces Missing: Assignments and Expectations, Joan Mullin
10. Managing Disciplinary Difference, Julie M. Zeleznik, Rebecca E. Burnett, Thomas Polito, David Roberts, and John Shafer
11. In the Writing-Intensive Univers(ity), Wendy Bishop
12. Spreading the Words: Collaborative Writing in "Killer Lab", Steven Youra
PART THREE. Reading Student Work: Scenes of Response and Evaluation
13. Making Learning Visible: What You Can't See Can Change Response, Kathleen Blake Yancey
14. Two Papers, Two Views, Joan Graham
15. The Jonas Incident, Chris M. Anson
16. Esmeralda's Math Class, Sandra Jamieson
17. The Finger on the Pulse: Who Teaches Writing?, William Condon
18. It's All Academic, Deanna P. Dannels
PART FOUR. Coaching Writing: Scenes of Ideology and Interaction
19. Rewriting the Culture of Engineering, Thomas Hilgers, Joan Perkins, and Monica Stitt-Bergh
20. Who's "Infantalizing?", Sharon Quiroz
21. Shobhna's Pronouncements, Chris M. Anson
22. It's Not Working, Carol Rutz
23. Requiring Revision, Juggling the Work Load, Joan Perkins, Monica Stitt-Bergh, and Thomas Hilgers
24. "You Have No Right", Rebecca Moore Howard
PART FIVE. Cybertext: Scenes of Writing and New Technologies
25. Through the Back Door into Cyberspace, Dona J. Hickey and Donna Reiss
26. Connecting Students with Professionals, Dickie Selfe
27. Sondra Gets Hyper, Chris M. Anson and Ian G. Anson
28. Lost in the MOO, David A. Jolliffe
29. Anonymity, Botulism, and Counterfeit Russians, Stephen B. Wiley
PART SIX. Fences and Neighbors: Scenes of Cross-disciplinary Work and Faculty Collaboration
30. Whatever Things Are True: A Scenario in Four Acts, Richard Haswell
31. Is This Writing?, Keith Hjortshoj
32. Showdown at Midwestern U: The First-Year Composition War between English and Economics, Sharon Hamilton
33. Raising the Gates of Chem. 101, Jeffrey Jablonski and Irwin Weiser
34. The Strange Case of the Vanishing Very Bad Writing, Tom Fox
PART SEVEN. Seeds of Change: Scenes of Apprenticeship and the Role of Graduate Students
35. The Blind Men and the Elephant Called Writing, Patricia C. Harms and David R. Russell
36. Greta's Cacophony, Michael C. Flanigan
37. Mistakes in Social Psychology, Chris M. Anson
38. To Teach or Not to Teach, Martha A. Townsend
39. Ranks, Roles, and Responsibilities: Crossing the Fine Lines in Cross-Disciplinary Mentorship, Julie M. Zeleznik, Rebecca Burnett, Thomas Polito, David Roberts, and John Schafer
PART EIGHT. Tending the Garden: Scenes of Program Development
40. Been There, Done That: A Problem in WAC Funding, Chris Thaiss
41. A Chemistry Experiment in Writing, Carol Rutz
42. Thoughts from the Rank and File, Chris M. Anson
43. "We Hate You!" WAC as a Professional Threat, Carol Peterson Haviland and Edward M. White
44. Forget Everything You Learned About Writing, Dennis Baron
45. Learning About Learning Communities, Nancy S. Shapiro
Appendix: Best Online Resources for Writing Across the Curriculum, Shaun P. Slattery, Jr.
About the Scenemakers