Purpose and Scope of the Journal
The purpose of the publication remains twofold: (1) to celebrate examples of discipline/field/profession-specific student writing from across the college, and (2) to provide students and faculty examples of such writing to use in the classroom.
Organization of the Journal
The journal is organized by program or discipline and within the latter, by genre or kind of writing important in the field. In this way, the journal showcases students using the same skills and producing the same kinds of writing that faculty and other professionals produce in order to communicate successfully. We ask the faculty member who submits the writing from his/her class to include a brief introduction to each piece highlighting how the student selection reflects the kind of writing and skills important in that particular field or endeavor.
The writing included represents a great range of experience and skill on the part of the student-writers.
Who Publishes the Journal?
The journal is underwritten by the Office of the Vice President of Instruction and a faculty group, Communication Across the Curriculum (CAC). CAC encourages interdisciplinarity, cross-disciplinary faculty dialogue and curricular experiments. It also supports the college’s Writing Across the Curriculum Initiative and sponsors the annual CAC Student Presentation Conference.
Who Can Submit Work for Publication?
We publish student writing from both academic and workforce programs in the college. The course instructors select and submit the writing on behalf of their students. Nevertheless, we encourage students who are interested in getting their work published to let their instructors know and most important, to make their professors aware that they are interested in revising and improving their work prior to possible submission.
The instructor is the expert in the field. Therefore, the journal editors and advisors wish to emphasize that faculty who submit student writing accept responsibility for guiding the writer not only in the presentation of content but also in the process of revision, editing and the correct use of the appropriate documentation style. Use of a particular documentation format is related to the discipline, the genre, and the preference of the instructor in a given writing task.
For additional information about the journal, contact the faculty editors Ron Heckelman (English) and Julie Harless (Biology).