CONSTRUCTING MEANING IN THE DISCIPLINES - RECONCEPTUALIZING WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM AS COMPOSING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Writing has often been characterized as having special powers as a tool for promoting learning, as evidenced by the belief that ''writing across the cirriculum'' should be established as a means of promoting thinking in all disciplines, even those in which a written product is not historically valued or useful. Theory and research in semiotics and multiple intelligences provide the foundation for an alternative view supporting the notion of composing across the curriculum, with a ''composition'' referring to any text that is culturally appropriate to the discipline and participants. Research on artistic response to literature, furthermore, questions the extent to which writing ought to be privileged even in language arts classes in which writing has traditionally been the primary means of mediation and assessment. This article ultimately argues that educators ought to question the privileged status of the textual forms that they allow students to produce and consider the potential of other acts of composing for enabling students to develop thought.