Links to Professional
Organizations
Here is a listing of links to professional organizations that are
concerned with the teaching of writing at the college level:
The Conference on College
Composition and Communication (CCCC). This is the college
section of the National Council of
Teachers of English. It is the primary professional
organization for people who teach composition at the college
level.
The Council of Writing Program
Administrators. This is an organization for administrators of
writing programs. Under the auspices of this organization, I
maintain a
list of all writing program web sites I can find.
The Modern Language Association (MLA).
The primary organization for literature faculty (and faculty in modern
foreign languages). The MLA has an ostensible interest in the
teaching of writing, but its interest in writing programs probably
relates to its need for a steady supply of grad students.
Teachers of English to Speakers of
Other Languages (TESOL). This is the primary professional
organization for those who teach English as a foreign language (TEFL) or
as a second language (TESL).
The Associated Writing Programs
(AWP). "Writing" in this case means "creative
writing." The AWP has almost nothing to do with composition
programs--weird, but true.
The Association for Business
Communication (ABC).
Association of Departments of English (ADE).
The National
Communication Association (NCA): This is the main professional
organization for the field of Communication. It was founded in
1914 when Communication programs started to separate from departments of
English. The teaching of communication and the teaching of
composition have not had much connection between them since, but
recently many institutions have started to establish
Communication-Across-the-Curriculum programs that try to reunite these
two disciplines. From this Website: "Founded
in 1914 as the National Association of Academic Teachers of Public
Speaking, the society incorporated in 1950 as the Speech Association of
America. The organization changed its name to Speech Communication
Association, in 1970. It adopted its present name in 1997."
Research Links:
CompPile:
This is a database maintained by Richard Haswell of Texas A&M Univ. at
Corpus Christi. Rich was a professor at WSU for a long time.
This is a wonderful resource for looking up any research in composition
and rhetoric from 1939-1999.
Links to newsgroups:
Archives
of WPA-L. This listserv is one of the most active on the
Web. Without subscribing to the listserv, it's possible to read
the archives going back to January 1993. The archives are
searchable as well. This list was originally intended for people
who were Writing Program Administrators (directors of writing,
composition coordinators, writing center directors, etc.), but so many
people who have formerly held such positions and so many people who'd
like to hold such a position in future participate that it's become more
of a general composition list.
