The Hidden Agendas in Writing across the Curriculum.
I first began thinking about the hidden agendas in writing across the curriculum when a physics teacher accused me of having one. I was presenting a workshop for secondary teachers in Grand Junction, Colorado, and after a session on ways of making content-area assignments, the physics teacher came up to me. "I figured out your hidden agenda," he said. "What?" (Like most of us, I try to be up front with my students about what is planned and what's intended.) "You're not just asking me to add more writing to my course," he explained, "You're asking me to change my whole style of teaching." He went on to paraphrase some of my remarks in the session. I had stressed that good content writing assignments should allow students to synthesize their understanding and to focus it for an audience, real, if possible. I had made some uncomplimentary remarks about the "typical" regurgitation-type essay exam and had deprecated textbook study questions as purposeless and audience-less.