Touchstone
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2010
Abstract
Since its participation in the 1999 CUNY Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC) Initiative, Hostos has sought to foster a campus-wide recognition of the value of writing and its place in the academic, professional and personal lives of both faculty and students. Today, with over 75 Writing Intensive (WI) sections, an appreciation of the connection between reading and writing, ongoing professional development, and WAC principles and practices incorporated into both Englishlanguage and Spanish-language courses across a wide range of disciplines, Hostos has made great strides in fulfilling the CUNY Board of Trustees mandate to provide students with frequent and meaningful opportunities to write. As we move forward, the Hostos WAC Initiative is guided by the views outlined in the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) report, “Writing in the 21st Century,” by Kathleen Yancey. This pivotal report recognizes the shifting roles and demands of writing in the 21st century and points to the prevalence of blogs, wikis, text messages and social networking sites such as Facebook which have changed the ways students learn to write and the ways in which they use writing both inside and outside of the academic setting.