Our Mission
The WAC Program at George Mason University holds as a core belief that, at heart, all campuses are communities of writers. Course assignments, grant proposals, research articles, social media posts, and annual review portfolios: Mason’s faculty, staff, and students are frequently writing. The WAC program upholds this campus-wide “culture of writing” via a commitment to student writers, faculty writers, and writing-rich coursework across all disciplines.
Our Goals
Our core mission informs the projects we undertake with our cross-campus network of partners. Our integrated, project-based approach aims to accomplish the following goals:
- Promote writing as a tool for learning and critical thinking
- Support the teaching of writing across the curriculum
- Advise departments on writing curriculum and faculty development
- Research and assess writing and teaching with writing in the disciplines
- Support faculty writing and research productivity and well-being
WAC Principles and Practices
Our WAC program is guided by the INWAC Statement of WAC Principles and Practices. In particular, WAC Mason recognizes that:
- Writing is an important tool for learning and discovery as well as for conveying what has been learned and discovered.
- Students gain proficiency as writers when they have frequent opportunities to write in courses across the curriculum, addressing a range of audiences and practicing the genres typical of their majors and the workplaces they will enter.
- Faculty across the curriculum share responsibility for helping students learn the conventions and rhetorical practices of their disciplines.
- Students benefit from having opportunities to revise based on meaningful feedback from their teachers, that is, feedback that teaches and provides direction rather than focusing solely on error.
- Writing instruction must be continuous throughout students’ undergraduate and graduate education.