The Prevalence of Writing Across the Curriculum in Collegiate Aviation Flight Education

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report on the use of writing assignments and the prevalence of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) in collegiate aviation flight programs. Researchers report a variety of results with the incorporation of writing and speaking assignments in different fields, but similar study in aviation is not well reported. Of 115 University Aviation Association institutions surveyed, 37 responded to a battery of questions regarding the use of writing assignments in their aviation flight programs and WAC. While the majority of respondents indicate that their institution does not have an established WAC program, collegiate aviation flight programs do employ a variety of communicationfocused courses to address communication training and assignments to teach/practice communication skills. Additionally, the majority of responding institutions indicate that writing assignments are required. INTRODUCTIONIn higher education, there is a movement to improve students' communication and critical thinking skills through a program known as Communication Across the Curriculum (CAC). CAC combines the earliest forms of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and Speaking Across the Curriculum (SAC), two movements datin g back to the 1970's (Fulwiler & Young, 1997;Schneider, 1999), with other forms of communication.Recently, practitioners and educators are proposing a variety of across-the -curriculum programs to address students' lack of communication skills and to improve thought processes (Riley, 1996;Schneider, 1999). Morello (2000) provides a description of speaking across the curriculum programs, while Bellon (2000) supports the notion of a debate across the curriculum program for improving students' skills. Addressing electronic communication across the curriculum, Rea, Hoger, and Rooney (1999, p. 93) note that "[t]echnlogy and communication are fields that transcend disciplinary boundaries and permeate students' functioning in all of their learning experiences." McLeod (1992) defines WAC "as a comprehensive program that transforms the curriculum, encouraging writing to learn and learning to write in all disciplines"(p. 5). It is based on the assumption that "writing and thinking are closely allied, that learning to write well involves learning particular discourse conventions, and that, therefore, writing belongs in the entire curriculum, not just in a course offered by the English department" (McLeod, 1992, p. 6). The purpose of this article is to report on the use of writing assignments and the prevalence of WAC in collegiate aviation flight programs.