Engaged Writers and Dynamic Disciplines: Research on the Academic Writing Life

An exceptionally thoughtful investigation of writing in the academic disciplines-one of the best I have ever read. A smart and elegant book.
- Mike Rose, author of Lives on the Boundary

How do faculty across the disciplines define the qualities of good writing?
What assumptions underlie their writing assignments?
How do students learn to write within their majors? Meet teacher expectations? Acquire proficiency in academic genres?

Chris Thaiss and Terry Myers Zawacki sought answers to these important questions in their landmark, four-year, crossdisciplinary study of faculty and students from a wide range of majors. Their results will change your approach to teaching writing.

Thoroughly researched and incisively written, Engaged Writers and Dynamic Disciplines shows faculty and student writers taking risks with form and ideas as they weigh the demands of writing in the academy with their own passions for learning and self-expression. Thaiss and Zawacki demonstrate that academic disciplines are dynamic spaces that accommodate a variety of alternative styles and visions, even as they respect careful, systematic research.

Engaged Writers and Dynamic Disciplines illuminates disciplinary assumptions, expectations, and writing practices. Its insights and conclusions will inform everyone who teaches writing or administers a WAC program.

Chris Thaiss has many years of experience in WAC program administration and development. Chris directed WAC at George Mason University for fifteen years and coordinates the International Network of WAC Programs. She has published extensively on writing in the disciplines and the teaching of writing. An article she coauthored with Terry Myers Zawacki describing the first phase of research for this book appeared in ALT DIS (Boynton/Cook, 2002).Terry Myers Zawacki has many years of experience in WAC program administration and development. Terry Zawacki has directed the WAC program at George Mason since 1998, administers the writing center, and cochairs the university writing assessment group. She has published extensively on writing in the disciplines and the teaching of writing. An article she coauthored with Chris Thaiss describing the first phase of research for this book appeared in ALT DIS (Boynton/Cook, 2002).