In 1989, a study was conducted within the Minnesota Community College System to determine the effects of a 3-year Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) staff development program on the quality of student writing and on student mastery of course objectives. The study methods included faculty interviews, student and faculty surveys, holistic ratings of student compositions completed at the beginning and end of the fall 1987 and winter 1988 terms, and trait ratings of essay exams in four subject areas. Study findings included the following: (1) compositions collected at the end of the term received significantly better ratings than those collected at the beginning of the term, though factors other than WAC instruction could have contributed to the improvement; (2) a small but significant positive correlation was found between students' cumulative writing experience and the quality of their writing; (3) the study of grammar was of little or no benefit to the improvement of writing; (4) though no significant correlation existed, an emergent pattern suggested that WAC instruction may improve students' mastery of course objectives; and (5) students who had more writing experience in community colleges had a more positive attitude toward writing as well as better comprehension of subject material. Though findings suggested that WAC has promise for improving writing and content mastery, additional research is needed to confirm the results. (ALB)