Drawing Connections Across Education: The Freiburg Writing Center Model

A German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akedemischer Austauschdienst, DAAD) visiting position recently brought me to Germany, “the country of poets and thinkers.” Whenever I hear this phrase, which is intended to highlight the prevalence of literary and philosophical discussion there, I nod and add for myself: “...and a place where one likes to regard poets and thinkers as geniuses and where writing is still generally understood as something that cannot be taught.” However, considering the increasingly rapid turnover of knowledge and the growing need for multi-functional writing skills for successful knowledge management, including reflective practice and lifelong self-directed learning, the attitude that writing is more of an innate than learned skill has started to change, albeit too slowly. In this article, I will analyze the preconditions for a faster change regarding the redefinition of writing in higher education, on the level of the individual learner and instructor as well as within the frameworks of curriculum and institution. Based on this analysis, I will suggest a model for how to adapt the basic ideas of U.S. writing across the curriculum (WAC) in Germany.