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In the Grip of an Older Theory: When Writing-Intensive Faculty Are Over-Prescriptive

Even the most brilliant of college teachers can absorb only so much writing theory in a two- or three-day writing-in-the-disciplines workshop. The faculty who register for our writing workshops are typically committed to good teaching and believe in the importance of good writing, but they might maintain a polite skepticism about or impatience with current writing theory.

The Digital Media and Composition Institute at The Ohio State University, founded by Cynthia L. Selfe and Scott L. DeWitt in 2006, is a two-week summer institute co-hosted by OSU’s English Department and Digital Media Project.

In 1982, I wrote an article for the second issue of The Writing Instructor, "Approaches to Comprehensive Writing: Integrating Writing into the College Curriculum," reviewing the early stages of the modern Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) / Writing in the Disciplines (WID) movement.

Introduction

In the 1970s, as I completed my undergraduate degree in English education at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, I worked at Copley Square High School as a student teacher. One of my practice teaching classes, under the guidance of senior teacher Steve Gordon, was the college preparatory writing course for seniors. I had already worked in the Northeastern University Writing Center as an undergraduate tutor, and had colleagues teaching first-year composition there.