Writing Across the Curriculum

At SHU, we believe that writing is foundational to a liberal arts education and essential for addressing the student as a whole person, in body, mind and spirit.

Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) oversees students’ academic and professional writing throughout their core courses, ensuring each students’ Pioneer Journey includes developing the skills needed for effective writing, inside and outside the classroom.

Effective writing is situational. WAC’s mission is to help students learn how to move from thought to written language in a way that achieves an understood goal. Students are taught to think critically about the choices they make when writing, an important aspect of when learning to write within different disciplines.

Students begin this writing journey their first year in First Year Writing Seminar (FYWS 125). This course provides the groundwork for understanding the writing processes. Here, students learn methods of critical reading, experiment with writing in various genres, and come to understand what process works best for their learning style. WAC’s committee, which is comprised of professors from throughout the university, ensures future courses further hone writing skills as they study across the curriculum.

Writing is essential to success in higher education, in the workforce, and in the community. With WAC’s commitment to teaching effective writing practices in all core courses, students graduate not only with the skills to write well in their careers, but with an understanding of language’s power, an integral part to promoting inclusivity, equity, diversity, and belonging, and the key to embracing our promise to be stronger together.