Piloting WEC as a Context-Responsive Writing Research Initiative

Abstract

This chapter frames WEC as a collaborative research methodology that privileges context as the primary factor in curricular revision efforts. We explain how, at our small liberal arts college, the practice of rhetorical listening with both undergraduate and graduate programs served as a catalyst to initiate WEC. A case study of our WEC pilot in the English department underscores the contextual flexibility inherent in a modified model that includes interviews/focus groups as a qualitative data component and epistemological tool meant to be placed into conversation with both writing artifacts and survey data to guide group discussion and inform the development of writing plans.