[EDLING:279] CFP: Academics Who Blog

[Francis M. Hult]

Lore: An E-journal for Teachers of Writing seeks submissions for the
Digressions section of the Fall 2004 issue.  In the past year or so,
blogging has become something of a national pastime with academics becoming
a core group using blogs for personal and professional reasons.  Yet even
though many people embrace blogging, many others have no idea what it is or
why anyone would do it.  In this issue of Lore, we want to explore the roll
that blogging plays for compositionists and the composition classroom.

Lore invites two types of writers to participate in this
discussion.  First, there are those who recognize a place for blogging in
the profession.  Do you keep a blog as part of your professional
identity?  Do you have your students keep blogs or read them for class
assignments?  What roles do you think blogs can play in a range of
professional contexts?  Second, there are those who keep blogs for personal
reasons.  What attracts you to the "blogosphere"?  Do you keep an anonymous
or pseudononymous blog and how did you come to that decision?

We recognize that many writers may see themselves in both groups, and no
one needs to choose one over the other.  We simply want to explore how
blogs influence both the teaching of writing and those who teach
it.  Furthermore, you do not have to be a composition instructor to join
the conversation; we hope to hear from a range of academics who keep their
own blogs about how and why they do it.  If you do keep a blog that
withholds personal details like name or location, we will certainly respect
your choice and will publish essays under whatever name you choose.

In Digressions, writers compose a response of approximately 1000
words.  Please place URLs in brackets after the underlined text that you
would like to use as a link.  While we recognize that writing on the web is
in the public domain, we also recommend that writers get permission from
any bloggers you quote, or at least let them know that you are possibly
exposing them to a wider audience.

Please submit your responses as an attachment in Word or RTF to Staff
Editor, Nels P. Highberg <highberg at hartford.edu> by Wednesday, September
22, 2004.  He will respond to everyone within the following week.  While
those who have previously written for Lore are again welcome to contribute,
we are always seeking a wide-range of perspectives and new voices,
especially those of graduate students and adjuncts.

Feel free to view the current issue for ideas about structure and style:

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/lore/

Lore needs to hear what you have to say!


Dr. Nels P. Highberg, Assistant Professor
Department of Rhetoric, Language, and Culture
The University of Hartford
200 West Bloomfield Avenue A 212J
West Hartford, Connecticut  06117

Email: <mailto:highberg at hartford.edu>highberg at hartford.edu
URL: http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/highberg/
Phone: 860.768.4136
Fax: 860.768.4940

"I think I spent so many years feeling alienated myself that it's a thrill
to me to have violence and death and crime and justice discussed like it's
a normal part of life.  Because it is."  --Alice Sebold, Entertainment
Weekly, 16 August 2002