Mission

Two smoke bombs. One has just lit the other.
CC by 3.0 via GrannieShawna on Flickr

Our Posts Will

  • Share research from writing studies, rhetoric, and composition with a broad public, to instruct and delight in equal measure;
  • Each address a single interesting “finding” in writing studies research;
  • Be relatively short, ranging from 275 to 3000 words;
  • Connect to timely events or discussions in public discourse and/or popular culture;
  • Share public, open-access versions of sources wherever possible (and screenshot relevant elements where not);
  • Reflect short-form web publishing practices, including frequent use of Creative Commons-licensed images, and thoughtful and rhetorical link citation practices;
  • Be written at no more than a 12th-grade reading level, ideally closer to 7th or 8th, with the goal of reaching younger, non-expert, non-English-fluent readers;
  • Present at least one piece of research, either original or published, academic or otherwise;
  • Be copy-edited but not peer-reviewed or refereed

Our Readers Will Be

  • Interested in language and writing;
  • Interested in writing studies research;
  • Potentially global;
  • Potentially non-native English-speaking;
  • Willing to engage with complex ideas, but seeking approachable language;
  • Potentially teachers, potentially writing teachers—but not necessarily

We Won’t Assume That Our Readers Are

  • Academic;
  • Teachers;
  • English monolingual;
  • Familiar with any particular work or person cited, academic or otherwise;
  • Able to access academic literature of any kind;
  • Comfortable with academic jargon of any kind;
  • Subscribers to any particular ideology or political party;
  • Seeking to “steal ideas” and rush them to publication ahead of the author

Our Writers Will Be

  • Willing to share their findings in brief, informative posts, with an interested, intelligent, but non-academic public;
  • Volunteer, at least at the outset;
  • Likely unrecognized, officially, for the work they put into posts;
  • Committed to the publication and its potential role in improving the status and global/policy recognition of rhetoric and composition research