One Small Step for Basic Communication; One Large Step for WAC: Adopting a Common Handbook in order to Facilitate a Culture of Writing

In the spring of 2011, the faculty at SUNY Buffalo State began the process of adopting a common writing handbook to be used in all College Writing Program courses, and eventually in courses across the campus. This decision was made in response to a number of programmatic and campus-wide concerns, including limited understanding of first-year writing course content, inconsistent expectations of both faculty and students for student writing competencies post-basic communication courses, and inconsistent utilization of writing in writing intensive and non-writing intensive courses across the curriculum. This presentation will outline the institutional challenges that provoked the adoption of a common writing handbook, articulate the rationale behind adopting a common handbook, review the process of choosing a handbook, and describe the ways in which the handbook is currently being used to further a culture of writing at SUNY Buffalo State.