Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)is a movement to increase and improve writing instruction as a means of learning as well as communicating in all subject areas, especially in higher education. It grew out of thinking about writing instruction in the 60's and 70's (the so-called "New Rhetoric," or "process revolution," and especially the work of James Britton and his colleagues in Great Britain, who coined the term).

WAC is a reform movement associated with a constructivist epistemology, student-centered learning, and an emphasis on thinking, both creative and critical. WAC programs work from two critical assumptions:

• First, that writing is a powerful tool for learning;
  
• Second, that students need to understand and use (at least as novices) relevant genres of writing in the disciplines (WID) they're majoring in.
  
  An important corollary to the second assumption is that professors within the discipline are best qualified to teach and assess WID, rather than English or composition specialists (on their own--sometimes collaboration works quite well). Writing to learn, furthermore, is appropriate to any course, especially when students write informally, as in journals, to articulate what they know and to work through problems in understanding, under conditions that encourage risk-taking and build self-confidence (which means, usually, writing that is responded to but not graded).

WAC programs have been in place since the early 70's in many colleges and universities, and the movement still produces new programs (such as the one emerging now at USF), as well as a considerable body of research and theory, scholarly books and articles, conferences, workshops, and websites.