Reviewed by Mary Jo Reiff 
  Youngstown State University 

With the ever-growing body of research on Writing-Across-the Curriculum (WAC) and the implementation of WAC programs at numerous institutions across the United States, the voices of WAC researchers and administrators are prominent. However, Walvoord et al., in their book, In the Long Run:  A Study of Faculty in Three Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Programs, remind us that the most significant voices—the voices of the faculty—are largely unaccounted for in WAC research.  

This study distinguishes itself from previous WAC studies by focusing on faculty’s perceptions of WAC’s impact on their teaching and by exploring this impact “in the long run.” The authors are well positioned to explore this issue, for all are long-time directors of WAC programs; Walvoord presided over the first WAC meeting twenty-seven years ago at Central College in Pella, Iowa. 

As a result of their combined experience, the authors are able to track the long-term impact of WAC by bringing to the study data from more than 700 faculty they have come in contact with over 18 years of WAC workshops, meetings, and interviews. 

Because the data for the study are drawn from three different institutions (the University of Cincinnati, Towson State University, and Whitworth College), the opening chapters (Chapters 1–3) contextualize the study, clarifying research paradigms, and methodologies. 

Chapter 1 provides a survey of research (ranging from 1981–94) on WAC’s impact on faculty. While the primary purpose of the chapter is to demonstrate the limitations of previous studies—the most significant of which is the privileging of the researchers’ voices over the faculty’s voice—the chapter also functions as a useful review of literature for those familiar with WAC as well as a valuable overview for those interested in learning more about WAC research.