WAC: Writing Across the Curriculum. A recent educational movement that
views writing at the center of the academic experience in all disciplines. Writing is used
as a tool for learning as well as for communication. Two basic arguments sustain WAC
programs: (1) writings helps students learn disciplinary content, and (2) writing is
integrally linked to the field in which one writes. Therefore, writing should be a
component in all college classes, rather than being isolated to composition courses in
English departments.
CAC: Communication Across the Curriculum. An expansion of the
writing-across-the-curriculum movement that broadens the focus from written communication
to all other forms of communication, including oral and visual. Although writing continues
to be viewed as central to teaching and learning, it is joined in an interactive social
process with other forms of communication to promote critical thinking, collaboration, and
problem-solving within and across disciplines.
ECAC: Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum. A term coined by
Donna Reiss, Dickie Selfe, and Art Young to highlight the evolving intersections between
the communication across the curriculum movement and new information technologies. ECAC
recognizes that e-mail, synchronous and asynchronous conferencing, multimedia, and the
World Wide Web offer new modes of communication to construct and enhance learning within
and across disciplines.
--from Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum,
ed. Reiss, Selfe, and Young (1998)