Grants for the Study of Writing in the Disciplines

Mission of the WID Grants Program

The WID Grants Program offers small grants to support faculty & instructor research on writing in academic disciplines. We define Writing In the Disciplines broadly: writing takes many forms (e.g., texts, objects, images) in different academic discourse communities, and it embraces many varieties of language and ways of knowing. WID Grants–funded research may connect disciplinary writing with spaces outside the University, and/or it may create deeper understandings of scholarly and professional writing within and/or across the disciplines.

WID Grants fund projects that investigate what happens at the intersections of teaching with and learning through writing—whether within or across disciplines. Teacher-scholars use WID Grants funding for small, focused research projects—or for discrete sections of larger projects—that address educational needs or research gaps in their field(s) or discipline(s). Funded projects can result in presentation and publication, and are often used as a prelude to seek additional funding from national grants. These focused research projects are a good fit for a WID research grant when they also contribute to a larger understanding of big questions about writing pedagogy and practice, such as the following:

• How might we teach writing in ways that interrupt or eliminate systemic barriers to students’ full and equitable participation in and across disciplines?
• In what ways does writing support student learning in and across disciplines? When we teach with writing, where do theory and practice collide?
• Because writing expectations are always variable and local, what does it mean to produce writing in a discipline (whether accounting, aerospace engineering, anthropology, or apparel design)? Or writing in science (or arts, or humanities, or pre-professional programs)? Or “college-level” writing or “workplace-ready” writing?
• How do writing expectations change when we collaborate with colleagues across disciplines and methodologies, and what innovations emerge to address complex and novel topics and questions?
• As we conceive of “writing” much more broadly than just words on paper, how do practices of representation (charts, figures, illustration) and persuasion (images, infographics, and audio-video) work in different academic fields?

Letters of intent are collected in spring semester, with the top applicants invited to complete a full application. Funds are awarded in late spring semester for work to take place during the summer or the following academic year.