Writing Across the Curriculum at BSU

In its mission statement, Bridgewater State University lists as its first priority a commitment to creating "an intellectual environment and campus culture that challenges all students to achieve academic excellence."  Writing is integral to this goal.

Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) is an educational reform movement that has been promoting writing as a mode of learning and as an activity central to critical thinking in institutions of higher education since the early 1980s. As WAC scholar Dr. Barbara Walvood has noted, "Writing is so complex an activity, so closely tied to a person's intellectual development, that it must be nurtured and practiced over all the years of a student's schooling and in every curricular area." One of the main tenets of WAC is that learning to write is a lifelong process, a process that cannot take place in a single course or a single semester but extends across a student's academic career and beyond.

At BSU, conversations about WAC program began in 1999 when BSU joined the nine Massachusetts state colleges to create a WAC network across the colleges, initiating programs at some of the colleges and strengthening programs at others. As stated in the original grant proposal, "WAC not only helps students improve their writing, but also provides opportunities to perpetuate and strengthen faculty conversations about teaching. In this way, such programs can have a genuine impact on the whole institutional quality of undergraduate teaching and learning."  Though the collaborative effort among the colleges has not been sustained, this vision continues to inform WAC at BSU, which launched its WAC program in spring 2007.

Explore Our Website!

On this website, you will find information about WAC at BSU, the WAC Network, writing at BSU, teaching with writing, and WAC resources, as well as upcoming events.

Last Modified: November 15, 2010

Special Events

The Common Core Standards Transition from High School to College Writing, WAC Panel, April 26, 2012, Moakley Auditorium
Link to Article
Link to Video

Upcoming Events

Monthly WAC Discussion Groups

Monthly BSU Writing Community Colloquia

Summer Institute Writing Retreat

Contact Info

Dr. Michelle Cox, WAC Coordinator

Assistant Professor, English
Tillinghast Hall, 309
Bridgewater, MA 02325
(508) 531-2183
michelle.cox@bridgew.edu

Dr. Phyllis Gimbel, WAC Assistant Coordinator

Associate Professor, Educational Leadership Program

Adrian Tinsley Center, 227

Bridgewater, MA 02324

(508) 531-2835

pgimbel@bridgew.edu