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To address this gap, the authors surveyed postsecondary instructors in the US and Canada to clarify how they define WAW conceptually and operationally. Using grounded theory, they coded data from surveys, interviews, and course materials, including readings and writing assignments, and analyzed classroom activities and reflection-focused tasks to map enacted definitions of WAW in practice.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/writing-about-writing-a-snapshot-in-time/599437/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/writing-about-writing-a-snapshot-in-time/599437.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"WPS_1790064749","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What gap in research on WAW does the study address?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The study addresses the lack of descriptive empirical research showing how instructors conceptualize and enact WAW in writing classes.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How did the authors investigate instructors’ WAW conceptions and practices?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"They used a triangulated, mixed-methods design with surveys, interviews, and instructional documents, coding the data using grounded theory.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How do participants describe what WAW courses focus on?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Participants describe WAW as centering writing itself—often through disciplinary content in writing studies and students’ reflective awareness of writing and writing processes.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},599437,1792164920,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},3985747859154,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Writing About Writing: A Snapshot in Time  \nCynthia A. Cochran, Rebecca Day Babcock, and Aliethia Dean  \nWriting about writing (WAW) pedagogy is becoming a dominant approach to teaching writing, yet lacks descriptive empirical studies. In response to this deficit, we surveyed postsecondary instructors using WAW in the US and Canada to discover how they define WAW conceptually (what they think) and operationally (what they do). We used grounded theory to code data and inform our analysis of surveys, interviews, and course materials, including reading and writing assignments. Participants defined WAW as a movement, a pedagogical approach, and a subject matter whereby students read disciplinary literature in writing studies, use writing to investigate and understand writing and writing processes (especially their own), and develop metacognition about writing (including for transfer) . The course subject or focus was writing itself, disciplinary content of writing studies (including research), and students’ own reflective awareness. Instructors used a range of readings to teach disciplinary content and research methods in writing studies. Classroom activities included practicing and reflecting on writing and researching writing. Assignments focused on the topic of writing including rhetorical analysis and real-world writing tasks, often emphasizing reflection and metacognition.  \n“What I would loathe to [see . . . is](see . . . is) someone come out with a rulebook on writing-about-writing with a step-by-step outline to follow. We need to be much more open and allow our teaching to be much more situated than that.” – Christina Grant  \nWritingsearchabanoudt Wpraciitince,gye(WAt deWscr)ipptdvaegeogympiircgaalthesturidng atties areentilacokinnignoru --side of self-reports, and few empirical investigations focus on how instructors themselves conceptualize and enact WAW. The lack of such empirical studies limits our understandings of WAW in practice and our ability to define WAW with respect to how it is enacted in writing classes. The study we report on here aims to fill that gap: to determine WAW’s operational and conceptual definition based on information gathered from a broad group of practitioners. That said, a brief overview of WAW is warranted, at least to anchor our discussions ofWAW texts and case studies that contextualize the study. WAWis an approach to composition using writing assignments based on primary research on writing, students’ literacy experiences, and course readings that  \nComposition Studies 51.2 (2023): 64–85  \ninclude writing studies and non-academic texts about writing (e.g., famous writers’ writing memoirs or laypeople’s autobiographies on writing and literacy). WAW adheres to the idea that, as writing experts, faculty should teach their expertise. To investigate actual practice in WAW and establish a descriptive (rather than evaluative), empirically-driven baseline of practitioners’conceptions and employment ofWAW, we conducted a triangulated, mixedmethods study using surveys, interviews, and instructional documents.  \nThere are many ways to learn about WAW. One way is by examining textbooks. Initially, WAW textbook choices were limited for US practitioners to Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs’ Writing about Writing, Wendy Bishop’s The Subject is Writing, Eleanor Kutz’s Exploring Literacy, or books on language (but not on writing specifically). More recently, books such as Focus on Writing (McMillan) and Language Diversity (Looker-Koenigs) appeared, and Writing about Writing was published in subsequent editions. Added to this small set are published lists (e.g.,“Teaching Resources”). Across these texts are examples of assignments such as autoethnographies and activity-based genre studies. But it is not clear from such examination that WAW practitioners use only these textbooks; it is also not clear how or why WAW practitioners choose their materials, nor how they would enact WAW in the classroom.  \nAnother wa","cbCaikz1OebnRVyl","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikz1OebnRVyl","pdf",172798,22,"English","# Conceptual and Operational Definitions of WAW\n## Survey Methods and Coding Approach\n## Classroom Practices and Assignment Types\n## Overview of WAW Textbooks and Course Cases","[{\"question\":\"What gap in research on WAW does the study address?\",\"answer\":\"The study addresses the lack of descriptive empirical research showing how instructors conceptualize and enact WAW in writing classes.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the authors investigate instructors’ WAW conceptions and practices?\",\"answer\":\"They used a triangulated, mixed-methods design with surveys, interviews, and instructional documents, coding the data using grounded theory.\"},{\"question\":\"How do participants describe what WAW courses focus on?\",\"answer\":\"Participants describe WAW as centering writing itself—often through disciplinary content in writing studies and students’ reflective awareness of writing and writing processes.\"}]","Writing About Writing: A Snapshot in Time | PDF",1792088770,55]