Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing is an open-source textbook series for undergraduate composition students. Peer-reviewed chapters are written specifically for students and include a teacher resource section for other instructors. The editors are seeking to expand its student and writing instructor audiences to include those at English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) institutions and instructors teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP).
While the chapters in previous volumes have been primarily aimed at US contexts, this volume will include chapters written for the diverse student populations in various global regions. We invite proposals from EMI instructors who understand, are sensitive to, and adapt to local conditions of teaching and learning (Casanave 257), including students’ conceptions of academic writing and the challenges of transitioning from high school into EMI first-year writing classes. The chapters in this volume should account for the various backgrounds of multilingual students.
Editors will review proposals on many topics, which might include, but are not limited to:
- Transitioning from high school to university writing courses
- Challenging students’ currently held beliefs about writing
- Arguing for the importance of writing as a process
- Understanding discipline-specific styles of academic writing, including ways students can connect EAP courses with ESP (English for Specific Purposes) courses (Ziang et al.)
- Understanding genre expectations about academic writing (see Altinmakas & Bayyurt, 2018)
- Addressing cultural conceptions of plagiarism
- Receiving and incorporating feedback from instructors
- Writing about sensitive cultural issues such as the Israel Palestine War, Pakistan and India border disputes, global refugee and immigrant migrations, various cultural interpretations of gender roles, and many other religious or cultural issues
- Reading comprehension and vocabulary development (see Pessoa et al., 2014)
In addition to these topics, we also invite potential authors to make a proposal that builds on and/or updates an existing Writing Spaces essay by adopting a global lens, especially:
- Brad Jacobson, Madelyn Pawlowski, and Christine M. Tardy, “Make Your ‘Move’: Writing in Genres”
- Dan Melzer, “Understanding Discourse Communities”
- Mara Lee Grayson, “Writing Toward Racial Literacy”
- Ellen Carillo and Alice Horning, “Effectively and Efficiently Reading the Credibility of Online Sources”
- Jillian Grauman, “What’s That Supposed to Mean? Using Feedback on Your Writing”
Additionally, potential contributors may find it useful to consider Writing Spaces existing content by exploring our Essay Clusters feature. How might existing chapters need to be re-framed, updated, or added to from an international perspective? What clusters or chapters are missing?
Timeline
Each proposal should consist of a 500 word abstract that clearly summarizes the proposed student-centered essay and indicates whether (or not) and how student voices and/or visuals will be included.
Proposals will be accepted until June 1, 2023, and should be submitted as a .doc, .pdf, .rtf, or .odt file via email to editors@writingspaces.org with “Volume 7 Proposal, [Title]” in the subject line. Editors will review proposals by July 1, 2023 and will invite some authors to prepare manuscripts for peer review in two groups. Group 1 will submit chapters for peer review July 1, 2023. Group 2 will submit chapters for peer review August 1, 2023. Selected chapters will be selected through a double-blind review process by reviewers with similar areas of expertise beginning.
Final submitted essays will be approximately 4,000 to 5,000 words (no longer) and will be written for a student audience. In addition to the essay, authors will create brief instructor resources and discussion questions that will be published to the Writing Spaces website for instructor use. The publication of the 7th volume is planned for late Fall 2023. More information for authors is available in the authors’ area of our website: http://writingspaces.org/authors.
Please email any questions to editors@writingspaces.org or contact Rachel Buck (Associate Editor of International Education) directly at rbuck@aus.edu.
About Writing Spaces
Each Writing Spaces volume contains peer-reviewed collections of essays, all composed by teachers for students, with each chapter available for free download from our website under a Creative Commons license. Volumes are also published in print through our partner Parlor Press.
If you haven’t taught with or read Writing Spaces yet, be sure to familiarize yourself with essays in the most recent volume. Contributions should center the first-year writer in a regional global context as primary audience, drawing on narrative and personal approaches to create an accessible and reader-friendly text. Student voices and examples are encouraged, with appropriate permissions, and original or freely-licensed visuals are encouraged. Collaboratively written essays are also welcome.
References
Al-Bakri, Sawsan. “Problematizing English Medium Instruction in Oman.” International Journal of Bilingual and Multilingual Teachers of English, vol. 1, no. 2, 2013, pp. 55-69.
Altinmakas, Derya & Yasemin Bayyurt. “An Exploratory Study on Factors Influencing Undergraduate Students’ Academic Writing Practices in Turkey.” Journal of English for Academic Purposes, vol. 37, 2018, pp. 88-103.
Casanave, Christine Pearson. “Training for Writing or Training for Reality? Writing in Foreign Language Contexts: Learning, Teaching, and Research, edited by Rosa M. Manchón, Multilingual Matters, 2009, pp. 256-280.
Moghabghab, Emma. “(Re)Writing the Middle East: Tension, Engagement, and Rhetorical Translanguaging.” Composition Studies, vol. 49, no. 3, 2021, pp. 165-170.
Pessoa, Silvia, Ryan T. Miller, & David Kaufer. “Students’ Challenges and Development in the Transition to Academic Writing at an English-Medium University in Qatar.” International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, vol. 52, no. 2, 2014, pp. 127-156.