CompPile News
Rich has finished updating the Quarterly of the National Writing Project, from the first issue in 1978 through 1999. Everything is uploaded and the link to the full-text files, which the NWP makes available at <http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/doc/resources/quarterly_archives.csp> has been added to all the records. Total of 423 records.
Glenn will focus on updating from 2000 on.
For more than a few years now, many U.S. colleges and universities have initiated programs that invite (or require) FY students to read a “common” text before arriving on campus.
In August 2008, Chris Anson (N.C. State University) assembled an initial list (over 250 entries) of common readings from responses to queries posted on several listservs and from information obtained from the Internet. Chris shared that initial list with CompFAQs so that it is widely available and so that it can be updated regularly.
See / add to the list here or find it via CompFAQs, in the “Reading Lists” category.
Learn more about the partnership between WPA and NSSE that has resulted in the “Consortium for the Study of Writing in College.” Here’s a brief excerpt from the new website:
The Council of Writing Program Administrators and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) have partnered to develop a set of 27 questions about writing and its teaching across the curriculum. In spring 2008, we administered these questions to 82 US colleges by adding them to the regular NSSE questions. The responses of 23,000 students provide the broadest snapshot so far of the writing that US undergraduates do.”
Spread the word.
I’ve redesigned the front page of CompPile, slightly. Thinking of CompPile as a place where we go to find information, I’ve added a column of “CompLinks” that list links to various resources and tools that are part of our everyday work (I think?).
In the first attempt, the list includes “professional organizations,” “tools,” “blogs,” “listserves,” and “online journals” (full text, meant to be read online, etc.). I’ll appreciate suggestions for adding, rearranging, etc. I know the list as it is now is not comprehensive, and as it grows, space issues on the first page will result in more links being available in pop-out menus.
I’ve published a drafty piece about possible ways that faculty might invite graduate students to contribute to CompFAQs as part of their graduate course work. The link leads to the CompFAQs wiki. I’ll appreciate any feedback.
This wiki piece is a companion to my recent blog posting Volunteering as Learning: Inviting Grad Students to CompPile.
Soon I hope to link from CompPile to more-final versions of these pieces.
[I'm sharing this via CompBlog as a draft. Eventually, this information will be part of the static CompPile site. The goal here is to encourage faculty who are teaching graduate courses in Comp/Rhet consider incorporating assignments that invite graduate students to volunteer at CompPile, as a learning experience, an assignment, an introduction to ongoing work in our field. I will be posting a separate set of suggestions related to CompFAQs work. Comments welcome.]
How can CompPile be incorporated into graduate course work? How can graduate students contribute to CompPile?
Ideas for contributing to CompPile (and for using CompPile work as assignments in graduate courses): Read the rest of this entry »
Today I uploaded WCJ 26.2, which means WCJ is now current in CompPile. Thanks to the members of WCENTER-L for providing page numbers when I sent the request.
I continue to work on WLN. And we continue to seek volunteers, not only for indexing, but to review the current indexing and confirm that we have supplied all the appropriate search terms that will help users locate relevant materials in their searches. Volunteers can also consider writing annotations or reviews for articles.
You may have noticed a new tab in the top menu that explains “comments.” The comment feature is now open for CompBlog posts. To prevent spam, any comment that includes a URL will be held for moderation. Otherwise, comments are welcome, as long as commenters identify themselves.
We look forward to hearing from CompPile users.
Last week, I announced, optimistically, that I would try to have completed indexing for WCJ and WLN by this week. As is too often the case, I was over-optimistic.
WCJ is now current except for three issues: 25.2, 26.1, and 26.2. Unfortunately, the online archive (when I can access it) doesn’t include page numbers in its TOC. So I’m tracking down those 3 issues to update WCJ.
I have completed WLN through 2000; however, my work with that is moving more slowly. WLN publishes 10 issues a year, and even though they are all available online, indexing and adding keywords takes time.
Volunteers are always welcome.
The CompReviews process has now been revised significantly and moved to the new servers. As I’ve said in other places, any item listed in CompPile is now a candidate for review–books, articles, chapters, webspaces.
At WPA 2008, one of the focuses of our session about using online tools focused on CompReviews, their potential value, and the various reasons why individuals weren’t contributing. I hope we are able to generate more participation.
As part of this revision and move, the New/Recent Books section has been rebuilt from scratch, in part to make the page designs more consistent and to build in some automatic updating processes. With this new space, books published within the past two years will appear in the lists, as long as they appear in the CompPile index.
Updating and maintaining publishers’ lists of new books is an important challenge. Volunteers are always welcome.