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Kathy's posting is so thoughtful that eventhough I'm late responding, having only just got back from a great CATTW meeting, I cannot resist continuing the conversation: > And these course should be voluntary. > I have been in the business of forcing writing down unwilling throats, > and it is soul destroying expereince--one that I don't wish to repeat. Yes, it can be awful. But what about those students who do not wish or are afraid to take comp courses or for that matter, any courses where good writing is required? What if the faculty is not interested in WAC or WID? Can we force WAC/WID down faculty't throats? > NOr do I wish to replicate the "comp" business as I see it in some > of the > universities in the States--huge numbers of courses taught by grad > students and sessionals, underpayed and overworked. I have to agree. > A small, limited > composition program that students want to get into would suit me just fine. > With such a program in place it then becomes possible to advance > and > argue for a WAC/WID program. Is it really that easy? I remember attending one conference where Deborah Weinstein declared WAC is dead. If I recall, because most faculty are not interested for a variety or reasons. > And in this equation, we must not forget writing centres. In my > view, > writing centres are essential to support WAc/WID programs. Faculty will > not support aWID effort if they have to deal with really problematic > writers--and there are some (sometimes many) on all campuses. Right. > It would be nice if English departments > everywhere actually recognized the importance of the English language. > But then we would be in some kind of virtual reality--certainly not the > reality I know. Not only the importance, but the complexity of language. > So all three are necessary--but they must fit into a coherent political > scheme of some kind. Otherwise in-fighting and nasty fights over crumbs > occur--something I have witnessed on several American campuses. Unfortunately, we better include Canadian campuses too. Mieke