Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) is a pedagogical movement that has been evolving in higher education since the 1970s. It is based on the following ideas:

• writing is best learned when taught by the entire academic community in the context of each discipline;
• writing should be practiced at every level of education;
• writing can be used to promote critical thinking and learning. WAC strategies help students understand course content while expanding notions of themselves as thinkers and writers

WAC began as a response to Open Admissions policies in the 1970s, and “the desire to make the mass education system more equitable and inclusive” (Russel 1991)

WAC programs now exist at almost every public college in the U.S., and generally emphasize writing both from a generalist perspective (WAC) and disciplinary perspective (WID, or Writing in the Disciplines)

WAC encourages us to think about how to integrate writing into all classrooms to support student learning (for example, through free-writing, reading responses, and “write-to-learn” activities that help students learn course content).