There are many inspiring and just plain useful resources for teachers of writing across the curriculum. This short guide is an introduction to resources that are open access and freely available for your use.
Links under the "resources for students" tab may have some material you want to include in a syllabus or course site. You can burrow into any of them and link to the section that you want to emphasize, whether it's avoiding plagiarism, developing a focused thesis statement, or something else.
The Writing Program Administrator's email list (WPA-L) is not just for WPAs - it's an ongoing conversation about all kinds of writing instruction issues being held by young professionals and some of the most respected researchers in the field of rhetoric and composition. The only drawback is that it's a busy list and the messages are unusually in-depth. I filter the messages into a folder where I can browse them when the opportuntiy arises in order to avoid total information overload.
WAC Clearinghouse - A fabulous source of inspiration that includes six open-access journals, including Across the Disciplines and WAC Journal a collection of 40 freely-available books, and peer-reviewed resources for teachers on topics such as WAC and Second Language Writing.
Computers and Composition Digital Press - Now based at Utah State University Press, this press is interested in exploring the potential for digital texts about writing in a digital era. So far a handful of books have been published and are available online.
Journal of Writing Assessment - An open access peer-reviewed journal published since 2003 and focused on responding to student writing and assessment of writing programs. Issues often include annotated bibliographies of publications on a topic of interest.
Bad Ideas About Writing - a collection of essays that tackle commonly-held ideas about writing that are not supported by research, such as the value of five-paragraph essays or that teaching grammar leads to improved writing. It's an interesting tour of misconceptions with pointers to research on each issue.
The most complete database of publications in the field of composition is ComPile, a volunteer effort that includes the records of over 100,000 publications dating back to 1939. There are also selected bibliographies on topics including service learning and second language writers. Because it is so in-depth, there are some publications that may be hard to obtain through interlibrary loan.
Naming What We Know by This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
