Question 10 asked about how participants regarded themselves, as a Canadian scholar, an American one, something in between, or something else. A close plurality of respondents selected Something in between (22; 40%) or Canadian (20; 36.6), with Something else (10; 18.8%) and American (2; 3.6%) receiving fewer selections. This indicates a mixed but balanced quality among the ways the respondents identify as emplaced scholars, and the tension elicited here shows up in other questions, too, which suggests a complex, transnational self-understanding among Canadian writing studies scholars.
Figure 2. A horizontal bar graph presenting compiled survey responses for identification as a Canadian scholar, an American one, something in between, or something else.
Something in between: 22 / 40%
Canadian: 20 / 36.6%
Something else: 10 / 18.8%
American: 2 / 3.6%
No answer: 1 / 1.8%
Questions 5–8: Involvement with Organizations, Conferences, Listservs, and Publishing
Question 5 invited open-ended answers about memberships in disciplinary organizations. Collectively, respondents referred to 67 organizations, with twelve receiving mention by at least four respondents:
Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse and Writing (CASDW): 25
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE): 25
Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC): 21
Rhetoric Society of America (RSA): 12
Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning (CASLL): 10
Canadian Writing Centres Association (CWCA): 7
Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric (CSSR): 6
Modern Language Association (MLA): 6
Inkshed (also known as CASLL): 4
Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA): 4
Association of the Rhetoric of Science & Technology (ARST): 4
The National Communication Association (NCA): 4
In addition to those listed here, responses noted 55 more organizations. Twenty-three respondents (41.8%) listed organizations appearing only among the 12 shown above. Twenty-three more respondents (41.8%) mentioned either one or two organizations in addition to the ones listed above. Six respondents did not mention any organization among those listed. This points to a relatively high density in the open-ended responses; a locus of leading organizations, with 5 of the 12 (41.6%) based in Canada, recurred with high frequency in the responses. Notably, responses to this question also hint at a problem of anachronism in organizational naming practices related to the timespan of careers. Inkshed was rebranded as CASLL, and respondents identified the organization both ways, a likely indicator of both names resonating depending on one’s relationship to the organization and the timeframe corresponding to that relationship.
Question 6 attended to conferences, and answers included several acronyms appearing in question 5, as well, which is to be expected considering how common it is for scholarly organizations to sponsor annual conferences.
Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC): 24
Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse and Writing (CASDW): 20
Rhetoric Society of America (RSA): 10
Inkshed: 6
Canadian Congress: 5
Computers and Writing (CW): 4
International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference (IWAC): 3
Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric (CSSR): 3
Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE): 3
Association of the Rhetoric of Science & Technology (ARST): 3
Canadian Writing Centres Association (CWCA): 3
Beyond the 11 leading conferences, respondents noted 42 additional conferences, each receiving 1–2 references. Twenty-one respondents answered with conferences showing up entirely in the 11 listed here. Forty-eight responses had at least one reference to a conference in the top 11; seven respondents had none. Canada’s geographic expansiveness bears mentioning again in the context of this question considering that half of the top mention-getting conferences, CCCC, RSA, and Computers and Writing, have never been hosted in Canada.
Compared to organizations and conferences, the focus of question 7, listservs, has a far lower threshold for participation. Respondents noted 75 listservs, with the following 10 receiving three or more mentions:
CASDW-L: 23
CASLL-L: 13
WPA-L: 10
H-Rhetor: 8
CWCA: 7
WAC-L: 4
Techrhet: 4
CSSR: 4
ATTW: 3
wcenter (IWCA): 3
Similar to questions 5 and 6, 23 respondents referred to listservs appearing exclusively in the list above, whereas 28 respondents noted one or more listservs beyond those listed. Four respondents answered “none” or declined to answer. While one might speculate about the important function of electronic communication fostered by listservs to be an impactful presence in boosting a sense of connection among Canadian writing studies scholars, the survey does not substantiate this speculation. Responses support the conclusion that a clear majority of respondents subscribe to disciplinary listservs, many of which are affiliated with Canadian organizations, and yet one respondent’s noting parenthetically “I hardly read any of them” offers an important caveat, reminding us that subscribing to listservs does not necessarily equate to participating actively as a reader or writer. Nevertheless, although the conferences’ respondents mentioned are predominantly American, the prominence of listservs oriented toward Canada and Canadian organizations appears to be a distinctive counterpart for sustaining professional and disciplinary interactions across distances.
Question 8, on publishing activity, elicited the most varied set of responses because the question asked both about journals and presses, and about actual and prospective publishing activity. Total responses included 239 items. The coding schema sifted the responses into 97 unique journals, 27 unique presses, two newsletters, and one conference proceeding. The following lists indicate journals mentioned by at least three respondents and presses mentioned by at least two respondents.
Journals
College Composition and Communication (CCC): 16
Written Communication (WC): 13
Rhetoric Society Quarterly (RSQ): 7
College English (CE): 6
Journal of Business and Technical Communication (JBTC): 6
Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing (CJSDW): 5
Rhetoric Review: 5
Technical Communication Quarterly (TCQ): 5
Composition Studies (CS): 4
Present Tense (PT): 4
Enculturation (ENCULT): 3
JAC (JAC): 3
Kairos: 3
Technostyle (now CJSDW): 3
Presses and Publishers
Parlor Press: 5
Inkshed: 4
Routledge: 4
WAC Clearinghouse: 3
Boynton Cook: