NCER is accepting proposals for exploratory, development, evaluation, and measurement work to improve student outcomes in Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, Adult English Language, and introductory college-level writing courses (http://ies.ed.gov/funding/pdf/2012_84305A.pdf).

Those interested in learning more are encouraged to contact Drs. Meredith Larson (Meredith.Larson@ed.gov) and Hiromi Ono (Hiromi.Ono@ed.gov). We hope to build connections between those who want to do the research and those who want to participate in research and to build a solid evidence-based framework for improving student outcomes.

The Writing Center Journal is calling for submissions for a special issue recognizing undergraduate research in and on the writing center. This special issue will consist of undergraduate submissions focused on the topic of undergraduate research of any element of writing center practice, pedagogy, and/or administration.

Submission Deadline: January 2, 2012.

For a full list of submission guidelines and for more information please visit the official flyer at:
http://writingcenters.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/WritingCenterJournalCFP.pdf

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/B3FZWDT

This edited collection continues these ongoing conversations by examining the assumptions that structure transnational, globalized writing program administration (broadly conceived to include, for example, writing programs, writing centers, and writing across the curriculum programs). The collection also explores the practices and theories in writing and literacy studies that hinder or enable our ability to think about writing program administration as transnational and globalized.

Text-based and digital-media articles are solicited that fit into at least one of the collection’s themes: Theoretical Exploration, Case Study, and Primary Research. The following examples are offered as suggestions:

Theoretical Exploration – analyses, critiques, or arguments about theoretical approaches influencing globalized, transnational writing program administration. Possible issues for reflection include but are not limited to:
· the assumptions that structure transnational, globalized writing program administration,
· the assumptions that exist in our current theoretical frameworks that hinder or those that facilitate our thinking about writing program administration as transnational or globalized,
· the approaches to writing pedagogy that address and feature globalized relations among students and faculty,
· the role of new and emergent technologies in shaping teaching and research in global contexts and their influence on writing practices and pedagogies,
· the role a critical transnational analysis plays in disrupting or reinforcing corporatizing gestures of knowledge-making and literacy sponsorship,
· critiques of institutionalized discourse that see writing practices, student populations, faculty alliances, or linguistic differences in nationalistic terms.

Primary Research – presentations of research at sites characterized by their transnational, higher-educational contexts. Possible research topics include but are not limited to:
· how current approaches to writing instruction developed within US university contexts translate—or don’t—across transnational institutional relationships,
· the approaches to assessment made possible by transnational writing programs,
· the use of technology to promote strong and sustained linkages in classroom or university communities,
· the impact on learning outcomes of specific approaches to writing instruction within transnational contexts.

Case Studies – descriptions of the work from “Writing Program Administrators” at multi-national campuses that highlight issues including but not limited to:
· the collaborative work on writing instruction between faculty and administrators at campuses in different countries,
· the material conditions in which administrators of writing programs conduct their work,
· the logistic and infrastructural requirements for transnational writing program administration,
· the role of technology in transnational writing program administration, teaching, research, and assessment,
· the rhetoric of institutions with globalized, transnational relationships,
· the migration shifts in student and faculty populations and the ways these shifts are being acknowledged and addressed in pedagogy, curriculum, and the workplace,
· the increased mixing of native/non-native English-speaking students in classrooms,
· the efforts to globalize the curriculum for students and faculty at each of the institutional sites.

Faculty, administrators, and graduate students at US-based and International campuses interested in contributing to this edited collection should contact David S. Martins at: DSMGLA@rit.edu .

Proposals for this edited collection must be submitted by 12/1/2010 for full consideration to DSMGLA@rit.edu , and include the following:
· working title
· abstract (600-1000 word statement that clearly states the focus and purpose of the essay and outlines, in as much detail as possible, the working structure of the piece)
· author bio (100-150 word)
· brief explanation of planned mediation of text, in as much detail as possible, if proposed submission is in a digital-media format (250 words).

FYHC is now accepting submissions for our second issue, to be published in summer 2011. We solicit contributions from FYHC student-writers, teachers, course directors, writing program administrators, and interested others. Submissions for issue two are due by December 15, 2010.

The journal is divided into six sections, which are:

Pedagogy: This section is for essays that consider the pedagogical debates surrounding FYHC.

History: This section is for historical overviews of FYHC and case studies of particular FYHC programs.

Student Works: We welcome essays that are written about FYHC by students and essays that are written for FYHC classes by students. Collaborative teacher-student essays are also welcome. We are especially interested in discussions of or representative pieces of best practices for FYHC.

WPA Views: This section is a forum for Writing Program Administrators, Course Directors, Department Chairs, College Deans, University Presidents, High School Principals, etc., to describe the FHYC classes on their campuses and/or to explore key issues concerning FYHC.

Reviews: This section provides a space to review texts about FYHC or to review texts that have applications or implications for FYHC.

Editorials: For those who have political, pedagogical, and/or theoretical concerns about FYHC but who want to work in a less formal setting than a full peer-reviewed article, we have an editorial section as well.

Submission guidelines can be found at http://fyhc.info/guidelines.asp.

For questions, please contact the editorial team at fyhcjournal@gmail.com.

Dartmouth College’s Institute for Writing and Rhetoric, in collaboration with the Council of Writing Program Administrators, announces its first annual two-week Research Summer Seminar, July 31-August 12, 2011.

Purpose and Focus: This inaugural year’s focus will be “Got Data—Now What?” The program is designed to support members of our field who would like to engage in research, but have not had the opportunity for sustained collegial discussion about how to understand, choose, and use different research methods, effect quantitative and qualitative analysis, carry out critical analysis with (and of) statistics and statistical software, and prepare for publication of research. Research is broadly—and provisionally—defined here as systematic inquiry in response to a research question, in order to generate replicable and interpretable data, grounded in previous research, designed to extend existing knowledge and, through scholarly publication or other public contribution, to be extended itself.

The specific program, lead by a team of nationally-recognized experts, will be tailored to the research projects defined by applicants, will build from advance reading and exchange with the team, and will allow for equal measures of course work and individual progress on a project during the two weeks, with consults with members of the team

Who Should Attend: We welcome new and seasoned composition teachers and WPAs from all types of institutions and writing positions, including two-year and four-year colleges and universities, writing centers, writing across the curriculum programs, or centers for teaching excellence. Participants will leave the summer seminar with a concrete plan for completing the project they bring to the program and an ongoing support network, including the program cohort and the team members.

About Dartmouth: Dartmouth is in Hanover, NH, a beautiful New England town with an active summertime cultural agenda.

For More Information: Watch for the full announcement and call for applicants in mid-October, 2010; please write to Christiane Donahue (christiane.donahue@dartmouth.edu) for more information in the meantime. Applications will be due December 15th.

The Call to Write
Writing teachers have long used—and debated the usefulness of—peer review and response in teaching students to learn to write and write-to-learn. How can we, and why should we, make CPRR a major part of our teaching (and learning) in the writing classroom? Peer Pressure, Peer Power seeks essays that engage the often tough, sophisticated pedagogical questions involved in CPRR, encouraging contributors to resist easy answers. We invite composition, writing center, and WAC/ WID theorists and practitioners from across the country to submit essays that examine the nature of CPRR in theory and in practice. Questions we hope to address include:

*What roles do power, authority, expertise, and trust play in CPRR?
*How does CPRR complicate or enrich definitions of “peer?”
*How does/can CPRR work in WAC/WID, writing-intensive courses, FYC, First-Year Experience courses
(including developmental and stretch courses)?
*What classroom methods do instructors and students have to choose from, including how to form groups/ partners;
various ways to give comments/ feedback (including oral, handwritten, and digital); how to design and use
rubrics?
*How do we assess student performances, processes, and products in CPRR?
*What can writing center, writing fellows, writing group, and supplemental instruction theory and practice offer
those interested in CPRR?
*How do current theories of discourse, learning, or ancient/ contemporary theories of rhetoric support or
problematize CPRR?
*How do special student populations—including L2, multicultural, disabled or learning-challenged, first-generation
college, returning, and other nonmainstream students—perform in CPRR situations? Do teachers need to
make any special accommodations for nontraditional students?
*How do online environments, Web 2.0 technologies, wikis, electronic portfolios, enrich or complicate CPRR
theory and practice?
*Other ideas for topics are welcome.

Submission Guidelines
In order to include as large a variety of authors, points of view, and resources as possible in this collection, we are seeking two types of articles: 1. Longer, 3000-5000 word essays that lay out a theoretical rationale and some sort of application of that theory to classroom practice. 2. Shorter, 250-600 word “handouts” that provide fellow teachers with ready-to-use guidelines and suggestions for peer review and response. All submissions should follow MLA style.

Full manuscripts should be sent to Steven J. Corbett via email (.doc or .rtf format) at corbetts5@southernct.edu by December 1, 2010. Please refer to the Fountainhead style guide for specific requirements, especially noting the requirements to use student work <http://www.fountainheadpress.com/english/XSeries_Style_Guide.pdf>. We also welcome questions.

Steven J. Corbett                                Michelle LaFrance                        Teagan Decker
Southern Connecticut State U         U of Mass, Dartmouth                 U of North Carolina, Pembroke
corbetts5@southernct.edu mlafrance@umassd.edu teagan.decker@uncp.edu

If you have such a publication, please send to Thomas Ferrell (e-mail below) the citation plus a short narrative on how the article came into being. If the publication is not print or web based, the researchers would appreciate a copy of the document and/or a brief summary of the piece of writing, which will allow them to include conference presentations, program proposals, and grant applications.

If you know of any such publications, even vaguely, please send all the info you have so they can follow up.

–Thomas Ferrell (ferrelt@umkc.edu)

–Rebecca Day Babcock (babcock_r@utpb.edu)

–Moira Ozias (mozias@ku.edu)

My name is Greg Mueller and I am a graduate student at The University of Dayton who is conducting research on high school writing centers for my master’s thesis project.  I am analyzing different methods of organization and structure of high school writing centers in an effort to see if any best methods exist.  My ultimate hope with this research is to begin a new writing center at the high school in which I teach, Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School.

Currently, I am looking for 3-4 writing center directors who would be interested in participating in this anonymous research project. My mixed methodology involves brief surveys for tutors and tutees, in addition to interviews with writing center directors.  If you are interested in participating in this study or would be interested in learning more about the project, please email me at gmueller@cjeagles.org.

Thanks for considering this research and thank you for supporting young writers in your work.
Sincerely,

Greg Mueller
English Teacher
Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School

.

Thanks for watching!
Jackie Grutsch McKinney, jrmckinney@bsu.edu
Rebecca Jackson, rj10@txstate.edu

Documenting Writing Center Work
from jackie grutsch mckinney on Vimeo.

(http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/)

Writing across the Curriculum at the Community College: Beating the Odds

Guest editor: Clint Gardner, Salt Lake Community College

Writing across the curriculum and writing in the disciplines (WAC/WID) programs in community colleges have been the focus of only sporadic scholarship over the years. While there are a smattering of articles, a handful of doctoral dissertations, and a few books devoted to the subject (mostly from the late 80’s and mid-90’s), substantial research on WAC/WID from a community college perspective seems seriously lacking in comparison to the research that has been conducted in other postsecondary settings. Given the pervasive teaching mission that all community colleges share, the collaborative drive that many experienced faculty from across the disciplines display, and the community college’s specific commitment to general education, it seems certain that a great deal of WAC/WID work is taking place in community colleges, even if that work is not specifically referred to on campus as “WAC” or “WID.”

In this issue of Across the Disciplines, therefore, we will focus the spotlight on community college WAC/WID initiatives and seize the opportunity to expand the range of scholarly work in this area, exploring the challenges that community college WAC programs face, the ways in which student demographics and goals shape their experience of writing in the disciplines, and what the future of WAC/WID might be at the community college level.

We invite proposals for articles that explore questions such as the following, as well as others related to the topic of Writing across the Curriculum/Writing in the Disciplines at the Community College:
• What are the parameters of community college WAC/WID initiatives? How do they work? What are their successes? Their failures?
• How does WAC/WID relate to general education in community college curricula? How does general education use writing as a key pedagogy? How are faculty from across the disciplines prepared to teach writing intensive courses?
• What special challenges do community college WAC/WID programs face?
• What are the effects of working conditions and teaching loads on WAC/WID initiatives?
• What is the history of WAC/WID initiatives at community colleges?
• How are effective WAC/WID programs administered at community colleges?
• What role do community college writing centers play in WAC/WID?
• How do community college WAC/WID programs integrate with distance learning initiatives?
• How do structural/administrative issues shape the outcomes of WAC/WID at the community college?
• What are the outcomes of WAC/WID for the community college student?
• How do community college WAC/WID programs align themselves with their institution’s educational mission?
• How are community college WAC/WID programs assessed, and how are these assessments tied to budgetary, political, or accreditation needs?
• How do the community college student’s educational experience and educational goals affect the structure and/or outcomes of WAC/WID?

We’re eager to read innovative work that critically explores the foundations, implications, and influence of writing technologies and WAC/WID initiatives—work that is theoretically informed, that offers original research data, and that builds on appropriate literature reviews. Descriptions of specific WAC/WID initiatives are welcome but they should be situated within an analysis of a larger issue(s).

We welcome inquiries about ideas for proposals.

Deadline for Proposals: September 1, 2009
Notification of Acceptance: by November 2009
Manuscripts Due: March 1, 2010
Publication: Fall 2010

Proposal Format: Please submit a one-page proposal explaining your topic, the research and theoretical base on which you will draw, and your plans for the structure of your article. Proposals and manuscripts should follow APA documentation style, which is the standard for Across the Disciplines. Send your proposal electronically (in MS Word format) to Clint Gardner (Clint.Gardner@slcc.edu), guest editor, and Michael Pemberton (michaelp@georgiasouthern.edu), the editor of ATD. Please be sure to include your full contact information.

Responses to these surveys will be kept confidential and will only be reported as group data.

If you have any questions regarding this research, please feel free to contact either myself at nicholaselidavid@gmail.com or my thesis chair at norman_evans@byu.edu.

Sincerely,

Nick David
MA TESOL Candidate
Brigham Young University

Survey for Community College Writing Center Directors
https://byu.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_0iFc4czjjoTtRgo&SVID=Prod grudge the dvdrip

Survey for Community College Writing Center Tutors
https://byu.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_9ZxsAhU6Ivg7q9m&SVID=Prod

Dear friends and colleagues,

Today, after months of preparations, we are launching a new survey of writing center directors. This survey seeks to document all the work that happens in writing centers beyond one-to-one tutoring. To our knowledge, a survey on this topic and of this scale has not been done before. If you can take just 10-15 minutes to complete the survey now, the results might be useful to you in the future as you administrate your center, negotiate for additional funding, conduct research, or apply for grants. Below, you’ll find a link for our video introduction to this project and a text invitation or you can go directly to the survey now at: www.tinyurl.com/wcwork <http://www.tinyurl.com/wcwork> .

Video invitation: http://vimeo.com/2878322

Text Invitation:
Have you ever wondered what other writing centers are doing? We know writing centers are sites for various kinds of tutoring, but we also know from our own experience that much more goes on in centers than tutoring. We want to know about these other activities and initiatives–all the non-tutoring work we do–and we’d like your help!

With gracious financial support from an International Writing Center Association Research Grant, we have launched a brief, online survey to record the work that writing centers across the country engage in. We think this project is important to the field as this information has not been systematically collected, analyzed, and reported on this scale before. We also believe that this work may be under-theorized in the scholarship of writing centers. Last, we think information on the full range of writing center activities may be important to individual writing centers both to help staffs recognize all of the work they do *as* work and to allow staffs to compare initiatives and projects to national trends.

So, if you are a writing center administrator (whatever your title might be—if you are responsible for a writing center), please take 15 minutes to complete our survey: www.tinyurl.com/wcwork . If you are not the one in charge in your writing center, please ask your director to take the survey or ask if you can complete it for him/her. (If you are behind a firewall, you might have to use this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=EgnJvQcUZhWQsgCbuLAFxw_3d_3d.)

If you are interested in our findings, join us as we present preliminary survey results at the International Writing Center Association Collaborative at CCCC’s in March.

Thanks for your help!

Rebecca Jackson, Texas State University, rj10@txstate.edu
Jackie Grutsch McKinney, Ball State University, jrmckinney@bsu.edu

and click on “Take the Survey for 2008!” Directors who have completed the survey in previous years may simply update information that has changed. If your school is not listed, you may create an institutional profile under “New School.”

Your information will be saved if you would like to complete the survey in more than one session. If you are no longer director of your writing center, please forward this message to the current director. This survey produces benchmark information about writing centers essential to our field. Therefore, your participation is vital.

24.3 (Spring 2001): 59-82. We invite past and present writing center directors to take a survey to add to our data. It could take as few as 20 minutes, or longer if you wax eloquent. We are very much interested in representing the views of as wide a group of directors as possible.

You may access the survey at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=40z3vrYykWtJCFr1rPUmzg_3d_3d

All responses are confidential and no one will be identified even remotely.

If you are not your institution’s past or present writing center director, or if you know of another director who might respond to this, please pass it along. Your help will be very much appreciated.

Valerie M. Balester
Executive Director, University Writing Center
Associate Professor of English
Texas A&M University
5000 TAMU
College Station, Texas 77843-5000
979-458-1420