Communication Across the Disciplines

The faculty and staff in Communication Across the Disciplines are dedicated to supporting students in communicating effectively in a variety of contexts. In doing so, we acknowledge, honor and validate students’ diverse backgrounds and experiences as resources for collective learning and build on those foundations for success in their academic fields of study and future careers.

We pursue that mission both by offering courses and by working with faculty throughout the university through learning cooperatives, workshops, and structured programming (such as Reading Apprenticeship and the Reading/Writing-Enriched Curriculum Project).

We offer courses for first-year students (CAD 101 and 102) that explore the role  of reading and writing in our lives--both personal and professional--and the ways we, as writers, adapt depending on our purposes and audiences. 

Because this inquiry is challenging, and because some students would like extra time for their investigation of these foundational skills, CAD 101 is a two-semester class, and CAD 102 is paired with a one-unit support course.

For upper-division students CAD offers 200-level courses that provide additional support alongside major courses.

For faculty throughout the university, CAD offers a variety of resources to support the intentional integration of reading and writing instruction into disciplinary curriculum, including 

1. Web resources linked from the home page; 
2. consultations with CAD faculty; 
3. workshops in Reading Apprenticeship in collaboration with the Office of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, Assignment Design, in collaboration with the Library and TLA, and a variety of other topics related to reading and writing instruction;
4.  and an Assignment Review Service. 

We also work with individual departments to improve curricular integration of reading and writing skills through the Reading/Writing-Enriched Curriculum project.