Council of Writing Program Administrators

The WPA Executive Committee and the Commitee on WPA at MLA would like to remind WPA members that proposals for presentations on the WPA-sponsored sesions at the 2008 MLA Conference are due by March 15. The full call for proposals can be accessed at http://www.wpacouncil.org/node/1074 . Inquiries or proposals (up to about 500 words) can be directed to Dominic Delli Carpini at dcarpini@ycp.edu. Thank you.

MLA President Gerald Graff has chosen the theme of teaching for the 2008 MLA Conference, encouraging panels on related topics.

Rhetoric and Composition: Notice is below AND attached in word format. Please feel free to pass along this ad to interested parties:

250 word Proposals for presentations at the WPA-sponsored sessions at the December, 2007 MLA Conference in Chicago are due by March 12. Information on session topics and submission guidelines are found at http://wpacouncil.org/node/621. If you have any questions, please contact Dominic Delli Carpini at dcarpini@ycp.edu.

Please consider joining us for a half-day workshop, Wednesday, March 21, 9:00 -12:30 a.m. at CCCCs in New York, where you can learn how to become involved in the work of the WPA’s Network for Media Action and its most recent project, the National Conversation on Writing. (A text version of this announcement is attached--please feel free to print and share with colleagues and graduate students who might be interested).

The Network for Media Action has been working for several years to change the largely-negative conversations about writing in the media. Our most recent initiative is the National Conversation on Writing (NCoW). NCoW is an initiative to sponsor conversations about writing in many locations across the United States. NCoW is currently sponsoring videotaped conversations that will be edited into a documentary film meant to promote the importance of writing and writing instruction. We are also considering other ways to extend these conversations—and we hope you’ll bring your ideas for doing so. At this workshop you will learn about ways that you can become involved in this and other important initiatives of the WPA and its Network for Media Action—thus helping to change the frame within which the work of writing instruction is discussed both nationally and locally.

We hope you can join us at CCCC (you can register for the workshop at http://www.ncte.org/cccc/conv/125495.htm). And even if you can’t, feel free to contact us about getting involved. Email either Linda Adler-Kassner (ladlerka@emich.edu>) or Dominic Delli Carpini (dcarpini@ycp.edu) for more information about the workshop or the Network for Media Action and the National Conversation on Writing, or see the Network for Media Action’s webpage at http://wpacouncil.org/nma?PHPSESSID=9eeb8ca9961b6a031a310d516bbb498e.

Call for Proposals: WPA Sessions at MLA December, 2007 Chicago, IL

The WPA Executive Board and the committee on WPA at MLA (Dominic Delli Carpini, Joe Janangelo, and Rita Malenczyk) invite proposals for 2 panels to be held at the December, 2007 convention of the Modern Language Association in Chicago, IL.

Panel 1 Ethical Practices in Delivering Composition: Beyond Labor Problems to Labor Solutions

One of the most difficult issues we face as WPAs arises from our status as what Joseph Harris has called "composition bosses." The ethical issues surrounding labor problems, our day-to-day attempts to keep our ships afloat without abusing those who deliver our composition curricula, have been rehearsed for many years--and with great sincerity. However, for this panel, we invite presentations that provide solutions to labor issues that have ameliorated the problem in specific sites--and especially solutions which have the potential to work elsewhere as well. Presenters might discuss issues included, but not limited to: -- successful negotiation strategies toward obtaining better working conditions, -- funding sources and agencies that have provided resources for contingent faculty, -- new configurations of labor or composition teaching positions, -- faculty development initiatives that have helped to professionalize, protect, mentor, and empower adjunct faculty. We are especially interested in hearing about the ways that these solutions might be useful for WPAs at other institutions and/or for the organization.

Panel 2 Current Research Agendas in Composition and Writing Program Administration

In his 2006 plenary address to the WPA Summer Conference, past WPA president Chris Anson noted that in the context of "ideological attacks on our universities and our writing programs," WPAs might go beyond "fighting belief with belief, conviction with conviction, theory with theory." Instead, Anson suggested, we might "revive and reenergize the significant research agenda that helped to create the field of composition and its curricular manifestations in writing program administration." We invite proposals for this panel that describe ongoing research that has the potential to further our understanding of, to once again quote Anson's plenary, "how students acquire the ability to write and how we can best support that acquisition through principled, well-run writing programs." We also invite presenters to speculate on how that research can provide a firmer foundation from which WPAs can explain our work to the broader public.

Though research on any research topic important for writing instruction and WPA work is welcome, we are particularly interested in: -- replication studies—studies that return to past findings and re-test their findings in current times; -- meta-analyses of existing research that can help to summarize and synthesize the state of current research on key questions faced by WPAs; -- classroom-based and site-specific research that has the potential to be expanded into broader-scale studies (e.g., how findings about WPA work at one urban college might have implications for urban WPA work in general; how a study at one religious institution, one small college, one community college, etc., might be expanded by networking with other such institutions); -- how research findings can be framed and expressed (in print or in new media) in ways that are persuasive to specific and multiple audiences; -- how WPAs can conduct and compose research projects in ways that are inclusive of diversity; and -- how WPAs might design projects that foster conversation across various institutions including high schools, community colleges and self-sponsored literacy sites (e.g. reading groups).

One goal of these papers might be to invite studies that test local findings through collaboration with other institutions nationally, helping to overcome our sometimes isolated work and to instead develop a shared research network among WPAs at various institutional types.

Proposals for either panel should be no longer than 250 words and must be received no later than March 12, 2007. Proposals should be sent via email attachment to Dominic Delli Carpini at dcarpini@ycp.edu.

The WPA Executive Board and the committee on WPA at MLA (Dominic Delli Carpini, Joe Janangelo, and Rita Malenczyk) invite proposals for 2 panels to be held at the December, 2007 convention of the Modern Language Association in Chicago, IL.

Call for Proposals: WPA Sessions at MLA December, 2007 Chicago, IL

Panel 1 Ethical Practices in Delivering Composition: Beyond Labor Problems to Labor Solutions

One of the most difficult issues we face as WPAs arises from our status as what Joseph Harris has called “composition bosses.” The ethical issues surrounding labor problems, our day-to-day attempts to keep our ships afloat without abusing those who deliver our composition curricula, have been rehearsed for many years—and with great sincerity. However, for this panel, we invite presentations that provide solutions to labor issues that have ameliorated the problem in specific sites—and especially solutions which have the potential to work elsewhere as well. Presenters might discuss issues included, but not limited to: • successful negotiation strategies toward obtaining better working conditions, • funding sources and agencies that have provided resources for contingent faculty, • new configurations of labor or composition teaching positions, • faculty development initiatives that have helped to professionalize, protect, mentor, and empower adjunct faculty. We are especially interested in hearing about the ways that these solutions might be useful for WPAs at other institutions and/or for the organization.

Panel 2 Current Research Agendas in Composition and Writing Program Administration

In his 2006 plenary address to the WPA Summer Conference, past WPA president Chris Anson noted that in the context of “ideological attacks on our universities and our writing programs,” WPAs might go beyond “fighting belief with belief, conviction with conviction, theory with theory.” Instead, Anson suggested, we might “revive and reenergize the significant research agenda that helped to create the field of composition and its curricular manifestations in writing program administration.” We invite proposals for this panel that describe ongoing research that has the potential to further our understanding of, to once again quote Anson’s plenary, “how students acquire the ability to write and how we can best support that acquisition through principled, well-run writing programs.” We also invite presenters to speculate on how that research can provide a firmer foundation from which WPAs can explain our work to the broader public.

Though research on any research topic important for writing instruction and WPA work is welcome, we are particularly interested in: • replication studies—studies that return to past findings and re-test their findings in current times; • meta-analyses of existing research that can help to summarize and synthesize the state of current research on key questions faced by WPAs; • classroom-based and site-specific research that has the potential to be expanded into broader-scale studies (e.g., how findings about WPA work at one urban college might have implications for urban WPA work in general; how a study at one religious institution, one small college, one community college, etc., might be expanded by networking with other such institutions); • how research findings can be framed and expressed (in print or in new media) in ways that are persuasive to specific and multiple audiences; • how WPAs can conduct and compose research projects in ways that are inclusive of diversity; and • how WPAs might design projects that foster conversation across various institutions including high schools, community colleges and self-sponsored literacy sites (e.g. reading groups).

One goal of these papers might be to invite studies that test local findings through collaboration with other institutions nationally—helping to overcome our sometimes isolated work and to instead develop a shared research network among WPAs at various institutional types.

Proposals for either panel should be no longer than 250 words and must be received no later than March 12, 2007. Proposals should be sent via email attachment to Dominic Delli Carpini at dcarpini@ycp.edu.

At the 2006 WPA Conference in Chatanooga, in keeping with the conference themes, our three plenary speakers presented us with perspectives on the past of the organization, and provided us with an overview of some possible opportunities to look out for in the future. Jacqueline Jones Royster asked us to consider the "lessons hopefully learned" over the course of the organization's 30 year history. Chris Anson challenged the membership to increase our focus on the types of research that will give us a firm foundation from which to do (and make public) our work. And Pamela Childers outlined for us the many reasons why collaborations between college and secondary school writing teachers is so crucial. I hope that those of you who were present for these plenary addresses will continue the discussions we began during our breakout groups by adding to this forum your recollections and notes from the breakout groups—archiving our discussions. I hope these forums will also serve as a location to further discuss the issues raised in these plenaries.

Jacqueline Jones Royster: http://wpacouncil.org/node/467

Chris Anson: http://wpacouncil.org/node/468

Pamela Childers: http://wpacouncil.org/node/469

At the 2006 WPA Conference in Chatanooga, in keeping with the conference themes, our three plenary speakers presented us with perspectives on the past of the organization, and provided us with an overview of some possible oppportunities to look out for in the future. In the third plenary, Pamela Childers outlined the reasons for extended collaboration between secondary and college writing teacher and administrators, and gave us many examples of how those collaborations might be sustained. I hope that those of you who were present for this plenary address will continue the discussions we began at the conference by adding to this forum your recollections and notes from the breakout groups, as well as your further thoughts about the issues raised in this plenary. I also hope that others, whether able to attend the conference or not, might help us to continue (and to archive) our discussion on the topics raised by Pamela's address.

At the 2006 WPA Conference in Chatanooga, in keeping with the conference themes, our three plenary speakers presented us with perspectives on the past of the organization, and provided us with an overview of some possible oppportunities to look out for in the future. In the second plenary, Chris Anson challenged us to extend the research we do in ways that provide a solid foundation for our work--and as a way of responding to public challenges to that work with real data. I hope that those of you who were present for this plenary address will continue the discussions we began at the conference by adding to this forum your recollections and notes from the breakout groups, as well as your further thoughts about the issues raised in this plenary. I also hope that others, whether able to attend the conference or not, might help us to continue (and to archive) our discussion on the topics raised by Chris' address.