Ponderance

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 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: highberg [at] hartford.edu
URL: http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/highberg/
Phone: 860.768.4136
Fax: 860.768.4940