[1] In 2010, Thaiss and Porter defined WAC as "a program or initiative used to 'assist teachers across disciplines in using student writing as an instructional tool in their teaching'".
David Russell traces the history of WAC in the United States to the 1870s, the emergence of professional disciplines, and the new need for college-level instruction in writing.
As American education became increasingly skills-oriented following World War II – in part a reaction to the suffusion of universities with war veterans in need of job training, in part a result of modeling education after the efficiency of Fordian factory production – writing instruction was further reduced to a set of skills to be mastered.
Once correct (that is, standard academic) grammar, punctuation, spelling, and style were mastered – preferably before reaching the post-secondary level – there was no need for additional writing instruction save as remedial education.
[9][10] The critical thinking skills typically referred to in work on writing to engage draw on the taxonomy of educational objectives in the cognitive domain developed by Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues in the 1950s and later modified by Loren W. Anderson and David R. Krathwohl in the 1990s.
This focus on critical thinking supports alignment between the curricular goals of a course and instructor expectations about the kinds of work they assign.
It also calls instructor attention to the development of the general and disciplinary critical thinking skills students encounter as they progress from lower-division to upper-division courses.
[12] The goal of WID is to allow students to demonstrate writing skills within the genres expected in academic and professional discourse communities.
The University School of Business Administration (EAN) of Bogotá, Colombia, conducted a study where students took courses for writing in the disciplines.
Courses offered for writing in the discipline included: Introduction to Administration, Principles and Theories of International Business, Economic Thought, Models of Organizational Communication and Foundation in Engineering.
Not every major is the same, and there were some differences, the courses offered individual "work guides" for students so that they could focus more in-depth on writing in the discipline.
The University of George Washington had WID in the Arts and Sciences, International Affairs, Public Health, and Engineering and Business schools.
[23] Universities have begun initiating academic discourse partnerships between WID programs and writing centers with a focus on inclusivity for diverse student bodies.
[24] The goal of this inclusive-based approach to a writing center is for the tutor to guide the students to apply the characteristics of their background to learning and contributing to new discourse communities.
[24] Moreover, the inclusive tutoring style acts as an outlet for the student to reconsider their struggles as a normal part of the writing process.
Departments that narrowly focus on only "literary" reading and writing may have some difficulty adapting to a curriculum that contains non-literary subjects (such as organic chemistry).
Workshops at which faculty from many disciplines meet to share ideas about and strategies around writing are a primary way in which WAC is enacted.
Writing-intensive courses also often have relatively small enrollment limits (15–35 students depending on institution) and may require faculty to participate in WAC-related professional development activities.
Writing-Enriched Curriculum (or WEC) is a movement that scholars have recently started to implement in university programs across the U.S. With its basic premise reflecting WAC's integration of relevant writing throughout all student's courses, WEC aims to focus on faculty involvement and intense reflection upon devising a writing program that is effective and relevant for students in their various fields of study.
These consultations began with a focus on the qualities and characteristics faculty felt that student majors would exhibit if they were strong communicators.
[37][38] The Campus Writing and Speaking Program, directed since 1999 by Distinguished Professor Chris Anson (www.ansonica.net), provided much of the support for this campus-wide approach.
Minnesota evolved the approach into a portable model, shifting from a focus on outcomes-oriented assessment to a faculty-driven, long-term process of sustainable curricular transformation).
WEC is both a specific model and a developing concept relating to WAC; the acronym was created by Pamela Flash and her colleagues at The University of Minnesota.
Integrating the WEC model is anticipated to show improvements in writing instruction at a rate that would meet faculty expectations.
James K. Elmborg's work on information literacy and WAC[43] summarizes Walvoord's characteristics of creating a WAC program as: Similarly, both Anson's approach at NC State and Pamela Flash's model at the University of Minnesota reflect the same idea of coming together with faculty members from various fields throughout the curriculum and implementing these changes cohesively.
[45] Like WAC, Flash's WEC model also requires ongoing implementation and incremental direct and indirect assessment, which allows the faculty-implemented plans to sustain.
Anson's program at NC State revisits departments to conduct "profiles" of their efforts, resulting in a formative report for the department's use[46] According to Flash, WEC differs from most WAC programming in its departmental locus and its direct focus on the ways that faculty members in diverse disciplines conceptualize writing and writing instruction.
WEC is no longer solely dedicated to composition studies and other writing courses, but has expanded toward the Performing Arts curriculum achieving interdepartmental dialogue between all faculty.
In turn, WEC now focuses on creating, discovering, and using a language that can be translated into practical, academic, creative and professional fields.
Ramsay, in his paper Writing across the curriculum: Integrating discourse communities in the academy, found that students that participate in WAC programs become better communicators in their chosen discipline and demonstrated improved critical/analytical thinking.