Lifewide Writing across the Curriculum: Valuing Students� Multiple Writing Lives Beyond the University

A lifewide approach to writing and writing across the curriculum (WAC) recognizes education as a holistic endeavor that values the range of environments in which learning occurs (Commission of the European Communities, 2000; Skolverket, 2000). Drawing on student data (surveys, interviews, and maps) collected from students at six institutions across three continents, we document and describe the rich writing lives students experience within their course-based, self-motivated, civic, internship, co-curricu-lar, work-based, and other “spheres” of writing (see O’Sullivan et al., 2022; Yancey et al., 2022). Students’ writing lives are located across a diverse set of spheres, often providing for authentic writerly roles, and are characterized by six features: (1) writing regularly/sustained engagement; (2) valuing writing; (3) engaging in personal expression and having an opportunity to be heard; (4) using writing for entry into and continuation of community membership; (5) perceiving writing as providing rich connections; and (6) being aware of and accepting challenges inherent to writing. WAC programs, we believe, would benefit from re-envisioning WAC through a lifewide lens and working to better understand students’ lifewide writing lives. Lifewide WAC practices draw from and support student writers in lifewide learning by eliciting students’ prior writing experiences, using lifewide writing as a bridge for entry into disciplinary communities, assigning meaningful and diverse genres of writing, and being transparent about the complexities inherent in classroom-based writing and in writing spheres beyond the university. More than inviting students as stakeholders in program design or partnering with various programs on campus, Lifewide WAC provides an opportunity to increase students’ agency as they continue to develop life-wide writerly identities.