As writing center consultants and administrators, we witness the some of the ways that instructors can bewilder, frustrate, and even fail their students. We are often called upon to translate confusing assignments, decode cryptic comments, and explain writing conventions that otherwise would have remained tacit. These experiences may incline us to perceive some faculty members as “gatekeepers” who guard the borders of their disciplines, denying entry to students who are unable to intuit genre characteristics or produce error-free writing. This metaphor casts writing center consultants as guides (or smugglers) who help clients cross academic and disciplinary borders, and it casts instructors as border patrol agents who must be appeased or evaded.

However, faculty members who give writing assignments often need guidance as much as their students do. The WAC and WID movements have popularized the use of writing assignments in non-humanities disciplines, but rarely do instructors outside of English and composition receive formal training in writing pedagogy, assignment design, and assessment. As writing center scholars have pointed out, faculty who have learned to write through trial and error over the course of their academic careers may struggle to articulate the features of successful writing.

In this presentation, I discussed how this reality has shaped my role as writing center liaison to the College of Health and Behavioral Studies at James Madison university. In particular, I described my faculty development efforts, which include instructional consultations, faculty development workshops, and a collaborative initiative to create an evidence-based set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes for writing for each course level in the health studies program.

Admittedly, there are practical and social challenges to sharing pedagogical expertise beyond the confines of our centers, but if we want to help both clients and their instructors navigate the wilderness of academic writing, we too must be willing to cross borders.