Very Like a Whale: The Assessment of Writing Programs

Following the characterization given by Carolyn R. Miller in "Genre as Social Action," genre is described as a rhetorical means for connecting the public with the private. Since assessment itself is also a research genre, centering localized writing program assessment within the assessment genres of regional and program accreditation entities can yield institutional alignment and empower the WPA (24). [...]learning how one variable interacts with another allows us to "advance student learning through detailed knowledge about complex interactions" (29).