Christopher Thaiss

 Brief Bio
 Courses 
Research
University Writing Program
 International Network of Writing-across-the-Curriculum Programs (INWAC)

 

Welcome! In 2006, I became the Clark Kerr Presidential Chair and Director of the University Writing Program at the University of California at Davis.

At UC Davis, the mission of the independent University Writing Program is to serve all disciplines in the University through

**undergraduate courses in the lower and upper divisions that teach academic writing, writing in disciplines, and writing in professions--these courses meet the University composition requirement

**an undergraduate Writing Minor, by which students from any major can demonstrate to potential employers or graduate school committees their advanced work in writing, or prepare for writing careers

**graduate courses and workshops that prepare teachers of writing and promote research in the discipline of composition and rhetoric

**a Designated Emphasis (DE) in Writing,Rhetoric, and Composition Studies at the doctoral level for students enrolled in affiliated PhD programs

**workshops for graduate students in all disciplines in ways to improve writing

**workshops for faculty in all disciplines on ways to use student writing to improve learning and communication proficiency

As a teacher for more than thirty years, I've taught many different courses: among them, composition, business/technical/science writing, classical mythology, contemporary social structure, Shakespeare's comedies, advanced nonfiction writing, and graduate seminars in composition theory and the teaching of writing and literature.

Since coming to Davis, I've been chosen a member of the interdisciplinary Language, Literacy, and Culture Graduate Group, which  works with doctoral students from a number of fields and collaborates on research. I also serve as principal investigator of the Area 3 Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, which works with teachers K-University. My professional service beyond UC Davis includes coordinating the  International Network of Writing-across-the-Curriculum Programs (INWAC).

In addition, my teaching, writing, and program development have led to my being asked to serve as a consultant to schools, colleges, and other organizations locally, nationally, and internationally.

I came to Davis from George Mason University, where I was a faculty member and administrator since the 1970s.  At Mason, my administrative posts over the years included directing the English composition program, the writing-across-the curriculum (WAC) program, and the University Writing Center. I also served as chair of the Department of English and as associate director of the Northern Virginia Writing Project.

 
Courses
 
 

My Recent Course Syllabi at UC Davis:

Spring Quarter, 2009

UWP 104E: Writing in the Professions--Science

Winter Quarter, 2009

UWP 104A: Writing in the Professions--Business and Technical

Spring Quarter, 2008

UWP 390: The Teaching of Writing

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Selected Courses at George Mason University, 2003-2006:

English 610: The Teaching of Literature (for Graduate Teaching Assistants)

English 697: Theory of Composition

English 399: Creative Nonfiction

Research

International WAC/WID Mapping Project:

Research on Activity/Initiatives Worldwide Devoted to Student Writing in Disciplines

Begun in 2006, this project aims to identify, compile, analyze, and facilitate activity and interest in writing in the disciplines in higher education around the world. We are interested both in first-language and English-language initiatives. We are also interested in graduate-level initiatives, but we pay primary attention to undergraduate, college-university activities focused in disciplines, as well as academic writing centers or similar services devoted to working with students and faculty/staff in and across disciplines. See website for the International and US/Canada surveys and further details.

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Systematic Improvement of Undergraduate Education: Appropriate Writing in Large-Enrollment Classes

Through grants from the Spencer and Teagle foundations, this interdisciplinary project is designing curriculum in writing appropriate to a large-enrollment, lower-division course in sociology at UC Davis. This pilot project runs from 2008 to 2011.

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Engaged Writers and Dynamic Disciplines: Research on the Academic Writing Life

From 2000 to 2005, colleague Terry Myers Zawacki and I studied ways by which learners/writers become proficient in the discourses of disciplines. Over the years of the study, we learned much about how students perceive "academic writing" and understand the expectations of their teachers in different courses. Further, we came to a clearer understanding of how they negotiate the demands of academic readers and their own desires as writers. Indeed, we came to devise a developmental model, as outlined in our book on the research, of writers' growing understanding of the complex nature of their disciplines and of their own relationship to them.

This research involved

This research was supported in part by a grant from the Council of Writing Program Administrators and by internal assistance grants from George Mason University.

The first phase of this research (with one group of faculty informants) was published in 2002 as a chapter, "Questioning Alternative Discourse: Reports from across the Disciplines," in ALT.DIS: Alternative Discourses in the Academy, eds. Schroeder, Fox, and Bizzell (Heinemann). The entire project was published in 2006 by Heinemann as Engaged Writers and Dynamic Disciplines: Research on the Academic Writing Life. 

 
Core Research Questions to Faculty


Cluster One:

How do informants define “standards” for writing in their disciplines? What do they see as alternatives, acceptable and unacceptable, to that standard discourse? How do they see their disciplines changing to accommodate alternative approaches and discourses?

Cluster Two:

Have informants sometimes written in alternative forms? If not, why not? If so, why and how did they come to choose the particular alternative form(s)?

Cluster Three:

a. What are their writing/learning goals for students and how closely do these goals match the “standard” disciplinary discourse?

b. Do informants ever give assignments asking for alternative ways of thinking and writing?

c. How open are they to students writing in alternative ways to assignments they give? How do they treat such writing?

d. In particular, how do they treat student writing that shows “alternative” syntax and organization (e.g, “errors” in Standard Edited American English)? 


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