This post is written by member Jens Lloyd, editorial assistant for College Composition and Communication.
College Composition and Communication (CCC) publishes scholarship in rhetoric and composition studies that supports college teachers in reflecting on and improving their practices in teaching writing. CCC aims to promote the most current scholarship in the field, scholarship that draws on research and theories from a broad range of humanistic disciplines and from within the many subfields of rhetoric and composition. Our December 2016 issue, available online and in print, demonstrates this breadth of scholarly inquiry.
Those interested in the intellectual trends that have shaped the teaching of writing will want to read Chris W. Gallagher’s article on the legacy of behaviorism in writing studies. As Gallagher argues, though behaviorism is often treated as a dirty word from a bygone era, the behaviors of student writers remain central to the ways in which writing instruction is conceptualized and promoted in contemporary disciplinary conversations. Gallagher muses about the insights we can cultivate from this neglected aspect of our disciplinary history.
Teachers looking for insights that they can apply in their own classrooms should consider the articles by Jennifer Lin LeMesurier, who shares findings from ethnographic research on genre uptake and embodiment, and Jeffrey A. Bacha, who details an assignment sequence that utilizes the campus-built environment to get students thinking about rhetorical invention and usability studies. Also, extending the recent translingual turn in rhetoric and composition, Jerry Won Lee and Christopher Jenks detail a global partnership they coordinated between their two courses. Lee and Jenks suggest that a pedagogy aimed at cultivating translingual dispositions can be beneficial for monolingual and multilingual students alike.
Finally, teachers, administrators, and others committed to supporting the many types of students that enroll at our institutions will want to read D. Alexis Hart and Roger Thompson’s article on student veterans. Based on an extensive, multi-campus research project which received funding support from CCCC, Hart and Thompson offer a wide-ranging glimpse at how colleges are responding to expanding military student enrollments. Beyond any particular pedagogical or administrative recommendations, Hart and Thompson are most interested in encouraging proactive discussions at every institution about how best to support student veterans. Hart and Thompson’s article provides an excellent starting place for these conversations and for readers wanting to learn more about this burgeoning area of teaching and research.
Some of our December authors are featured in our podcast series. Check out these interviews for additional insights into the scholarship we publish in CCC.
We welcome feedback and questions about the journal at ccceditors@gmail.com.
Jens Lloyd is a PhD candidate at UC Irvine.