A writing support colloquium will be held at the University of Guelph on July 8, 2016.

Title: How Writing Centres Can Win Friends and Influence People
Date and Time: July 8, 2016, 9:30-3:30
Location: University of Guelph Library

The 2016 CASDW Research Award for best journal article or book chapter published in 2015 by a member of CASDW goes to Janet Giltrow for her book chapter, “Form alone: The Supreme Court of Canada reading historical treaties,” published in Genre studies around the globe: Beyond the three traditions, edited by Natasha Artemeva and Aviva Freedman (Inkshed Publications, available here).

Colleen Derkatch and Philippa Spoel have been awarded an Honourable Mention for their journal article, “Public health promotion of ‘local food’: Constituting the self-governing citizen-consumer,” Health (London), 1-17. doi: 10.1177/1363459315590247, available here.

Congratulations to Janet, Colleen, and Philippa!

The 2016 Joan Pavelich CASDW Annual Award for the Best Dissertation in Writing and Discourse Studies was awarded to Joel Heng Hartse, Lecturer, Faculty of Education, SFU. This award is given annually for a dissertation completed in the previous calendar year. Joel won this award for his dissertation, Acceptability and Authority in Chinese and Non-Chinese English Language Teachers’ Judgments of Language Use in English Writing by Chinese University Students (UBC, Language and Literacy Education, 2015). The committee praised Joel’s work for its clarity, thoroughness, and relevance. In particular, they focused on the value of his shift away from error-based assessment and towards the contextual assessment of acceptability in written language.

Congratulations, Joel!

Dear All,

Please see the attachment for the final program of CASDW 2016 Conference. There are a couple of adjustments compared with the previous version.

2016 CASDW Program FINAL

The call for nominations for the editorship of the Canadian Journal for the Study of Discourse and Writing is pasted below and also attached as a Word document here.

This is a call for nominations or volunteers for the editorial team of the Canadian Journal for the Study of Discourse and Writing. The official job description is as follows:

The publication editor(s) have the following responsibilities

• Prepare the contents of, and appropriately disseminate, Association publications in either print or electronic form
• Appoint an assistant editor representing the official language other than that of the editor
• Appoint an editorial board and a peer review board

This rudimentary description, of course, hides much of the real work. Some of this, such as preparing files with appropriate metadata so that they are searchable, is mechanical and could be delegated to technical assistants if available. Probably the biggest challenge, however, lies in coaxing the community to submit good manuscripts. Potential authors will need to be confidant that if their manuscripts are accepted, they will be published within a reasonable time frame. This, in turn, requires building the journal’s reputation.

Potential editors are encouraged to consult with the current editor in chief, Jaclyn Rae <jackie.rea@ubc.ca> and her editorial team to discuss what would be involved in handing off the journal and maintaining it.

We hope to be able to vote in a new team at the conference in May, so it would be wonderful to have nominations by the end of March. Anyone interested should canvass colleagues at his or her institution to see whether there is broad support for organizing an editorial team. Please contact Doug Brent <dabrent@ucalgary.ca> with questions or nominations.