In 1990, in response to faculty concern for our students' writing abilities and as part of the revision of Eastern's Core Curriculum, the Council on Academic Affairs accepted a proposal to make all Core Curriculum courses "Writing Intensive."

This proposal is now the foundation for Eastern's Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program. WAC programs (also called Writing in the Disciplines, Language for Learning, and Language Across the Disciplines) began more than twenty years ago and are in place at over half of the colleges and universities across the country. This allows EIU's program the benefit of a broad range of experiences and research among faculty in all disciplines. Our goal is to build from that common base and to implement and shape a program that best suits the distinct goals and needs of Eastern's faculty and students.

As Writing Across the Curriculum programs have been developing over the last three decades, two interrelated and fundamental principles remain at the center of the WAC initiative:

• Writing is an essential, integral element in the learning process itself--in addition to serving as a means to communicate what has been learned.
• Discipline-based writing and thinking are best taught--and most fully understood--in the context of the distinct goals and requirements of each discipline, though a fundamental understanding of the qualities of good writing can be introduced to all students in specialized writing classes.

These two principles are best enacted through a concept called "Writing to Learn," a concept that has created some of the greatest excitement among faculty who are turning to WAC in their teaching. One example of "Writing to Learn," which faculty members here and elsewhere have adopted, is the "One Minute Paper," in which each student reports at the end of the class on the "big point" of that class session and the main, unanswered question he or she leaves class with that day.

In this brief and informal writing activity, students are trained to focus, analyze, synthesize, while faculty are given immediate and valuable feedback on the class hour. When done regularly throughout the semester, activities like the One Minute Paper foster an environment where writing is a fundamental and useful element to achieving course goals and helping assess student comprehension of course material. In addition, this type of exercise helps prepare students for the longer, more formal analyses they may be required to perform on examinations or in out-of-class essays/research papers/reports.

Much of the research into the practice of WAC has been done by faculty outside of the traditional communications fields. Their goal has been to articulate the distinct approach to knowledge in each field and the appropriate methods of obtaining and communicating that knowledge as practiced by professionals in the field. Numerous special editions of professional journals have offered the results of that research and its implementation.

In October 1998, the Council on Academic Affairs approved significant changes in the ways the University defines and implements writing in its General Education curriculum. The University has developed a three-tiered structure for describing the writing that takes place in general education courses.

Writing Centered Courses
All of Eastern's general education courses require writing. Four of these courses--English 1001C and 1002C and their honors equivalents 1091C and 1092C--are writing-centered. In these courses students learn the principles and the process of writing in all of its stages, from inception to completion. The quality of students' writing is the principal determinant of the course grade. The minimum writing requirement is 20 pages (5,000 words).

Writing Intensive Courses Other general education courses, including all senior seminars, are writing-intensive. In such courses several writing assignments and writing activities are required. These assignments and activities, which are to be spread over the course of the semester, serve the dual purpose of strengthening writing skills and deepening understanding of course content. At least one writing assignment is to be revised by the student after it has been read and commented on by the instructor. In writing-intensive courses the quality of students' writing should constitute no less than 35% of the final course grade.

Writing Active Courses Remaining general education courses are writing-active. In writing-active courses, frequent, brief writing activities and assignments are required. Such activities--some of which are to be graded--might include five-minute in-class writing assignments, journal keeping, lab reports, essay examinations, short papers, longer papers, or a variety of other writing-to-learn activities of the instructor's invention. Writing assignments and activities in writing-active courses are designed primarily to assist students in mastering course content, secondarily to strengthen students' writing skills.