Writing across the curriculum: A college snapshot

This article describes a research project intended to yield data about the state of writing across the curriculum at one urban college campus site. The research included collecting writing from all courses of a random sample of freshmen-senior students during one college semester. Writing was coded and categorized according to audience and function. Data were analyzed, providing insight on, for example, audiences and functions by subject area and year and relationships between audiences and functions. Results indicate that teachers in the role of evaluators are the most prevalent audience for student writing and copied note taking, the most common writing function performed by students. Ultimately, the authors conclude by recommending a greater amount of writing to multiple audiences and for various functions.