Book Description

Noting that the term "assessment" sounds formal and institutional and frequently generates fear and anxiety, this book presents 14 essays that demonstrate that assessment can help students, teachers, and administrators in writing across the curriculum (WAC) programs learn about what they are doing well and about how they might do better. The first set of essays in the book focus on informal, formative WAC assessments; the second set discuss more formal efforts to assess WAC; and a concluding essay provides a theoretical and historical look at WAC assessment. After a preface, "The WAC Archives Revisited" (Toby Fulwiler and Art Young), essays in the book are: (1) "Introduction--Assumptions about Assessing WAC Programs: Some Axioms, Some Observations, Some Context" (Kathleen Blake Yancey and Brian Huot); (2) "From Conduit to Customer: The Role of WAC Faculty in WAC Assessment" (Barbara Walvoord); (3) "Documenting Excellence in Teaching and Learning in WAC Programs" (Joyce Kinkead); (4) "Contextual Evaluation in WAC Programs: Theories, Issues, and Strategies for Teachers" (Cynthia L. Selfe); (5) "Beyond Accountability: Reading with Faculty as Partners across the Disciplines" (Brian Huot); (6) "How Portfolios for Proficiency Help Shape a WAC Program" (Christopher Thaiss and Terry Myers Zawicki); (7) "Listening as Assessment: How Students and Teachers Evaluate WAC" (Larry Beason and Laurel Darrow); (8) "Program Review, Program Renewal" (Charles Moran and Anne Herrington); (9) "The Crazy Quilt of Writing across the Curriculum: Achieving WAC Program Assessment" (Meg Morgan); (10) "Integrating WAC into General Education: An Assessment Case Study" (Martha A. Townsend); (11) "Adventures in the WAC Assessment Trade: Reconsidering the Link between Research and Consultation" (Raymond Smith and Christine Farris); (12) "Research and WAC Evaluation: An In-Progress Reflection" (Paul Prior, Gail E. Hawisher, Sibylle Gruber, and Nicole MacLaughlin); (13) "WAC Assessment and Internal Audiences: A Dialogue" (Richard Haswell and Susan McLeod); and (14) "Pragmatism, Positivism, and Program Evaluation" (Michael M. Williamson). (RS)