You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'journals' category.
Title: College English
Editor: John Schilb, Indiana University
Publication Information: College English is the official journal of the College section of NCTE, and it has been published since 1939. Attempts to “address a broad cross-section of the profession” (“Editorial Policy”). As long as the topic is of “general interest” within the field, any subject within English studies at the university level is appropriate. Rhetoric and composition are only two of quite a few sub disciplines served by this journal. Audience is broad, covering all scholars within English studies, not just those within Rhetoric and composition. Published six times per year. Submissions: Manuscripts should add new knowledge to the field or challenge common thought. Discussions of pedagogy should be broadly applicable to other cases than the one described. Peer reviewed. Subscription fees: $75 nonmembers, $25 members of NCTE.
Accessibility: Available in hard copy from 1939-present, and digitally from JSTOR III from 1939-2003 at Jerome library.
Analysis: Although being the official journal of the embarrassingly small College section of NCTE doesn’t sound like much (at least, from its meager showing at the national conferences), the journal is widely respected throughout English studies, particularly to Rhetoric and composition scholars. Under the current editorship, the journal is nicely balanced between rhetoric studies and literary studies (previously, it was almost exclusively literary studies). Publishes almost exclusively articles which use rhetorical and historical modes, rarely if ever articles which are empirical. A strong journal with an incredibly broad scope, which can work as both a benefit and a flaw.
Title: Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Editor: Gregory Clark, Brigham Young University
Publication Information: RSQ is the official journal of the Rhetoric Society of America, whose aim is to gather and disseminate the current knowledge of rhetoric and to identify those lacunae where research needs to be done. It publishes articles on all aspects of the field, including history, theory, pedagogy, criticism, etc. The audience of RSQ is equally broad, as it includes not only members of the field of rhetoric and composition but also historians, communication scholars, philosophers, political scientists, and others who work with rhetoric in their scholarship. Published quarterly. Submissions: online form, the manuscript should exhibit new knowledge and clearly identify how it is contributing to current or past scholarship. Subscription fee: $48 per year.
Accessibility: Available since 1982 in hard copy format, and in digital format from Jerome library.
Analysis: RSQ is similar to other journals in its wide scope–it attempts to bring together scholarship from all areas of the field. It does focus exclusively on issues involving rhetoric, thus more historical and rhetorical modes are used in these articles rather than empirical studies. Overall, the journal is of about the same quality in research as that of Rhetoric Review, but RSQ has a higher acceptance rate (over 10%), thus, this journal does try to publish a higher number of articles per year.
Title: Rhetoric Review
Editor: Theresa Enos, University of Arizona
Publication Information: Rhetoric Review is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal investigating a wide variety of topics within the field of rhetoric. It is more focused on rhetorical and historical modes than empirical studies, and is more interested in theory than praxis. It publishes articles as well as discussions on issues in the field. It also publishes essay reviews and book reviews. Published quarterly. The audience is for scholars in rhetoric and composition with an interest in rhetorical analysis and theory. Submissions should be in hard copy format, including a cover letter, and manuscripts should be no longer than 7500 words. Subscription costs: $26 per year.
Accessibility: Archived from 1982-present online, also available in both hard copy format and digital from 1982-present at Jerome library.
Analysis: This journal is very reliant on theory, and also has a very low acceptance rate (about 5%). Scholars published in this journal most often are using library-based research rather than experimental, and issues with theory and history take precedence over pedagogy. An excellent journal for the best current rhetorical scholarship done in the field.
Title: KAIROS: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy
Editors: Douglas Eyman, James A. Inman, Cheryl Ball, Beth Hewett
Publication information: KAIROS is an online refereed journal focusing on the intersections between rhetoric, technology, and teaching. Each issue has a special topic, most recently (Fall 2007) the topic was “Scholarly Webtexts.” As it is a journal created exclusively for the Internet, articles published here make use of the available technology, including the frequent use of hypertext and embedded media. The audience is meant to be scholars from the entire field interested in technology and composition, as KAIROS attempts to extend its reach to graduate students as well as seasoned professionals. Published semi annually. Submissions dealing with pedagogy and technology from scholars at all levels in the field are encouraged, but they stress the articles must conform to their web-centric style. Subscription: none (online archive available to anyone).
Accessibility: Available online as well as through the Library (1996-present).
Analysis: KAIROS explains that they try to focus on the marginalized voices in the field, and publish work by adjunct, part-time, and graduate student scholars. They note that they attempt to push the boundaries of the definition of academic writing, and do so in their online environment. Indeed, KAIROS’s website is impressively “techie,” and often their articles are useful and engage with the current issues of technology in the field. Still, looking at a few recent articles, there is clearly more that can (and should) be done with the genre of online article…in 2007, mere hypertext (in the majority of the articles) just doesn’t cut it as “pushing boundaries” anymore. Some of their articles do make greater strides, though, still one notes the reliance on printed text in several other articles.
Title: College Composition and Communication
Editor: Deborah H. Holdstein, Columbia College Chicago
Publication Information: Part of NCTE, CCC is a journal focusing on teaching and scholarship exclusively at the college level. It publishes articles on the field of composition studies which range from pedagogy issues to rhetorical analysis. Broad in scope, it uses a wide range of humanistic methods from many disciplines, and supports sub-disciplines within composition studies, such as technology and writing, composition history, basic writing, WAC, etc. CCC is often referred to as the flagship journal for rhetoric and composition. Wide range readership, very diverse, as it includes scholars within the field and outside the composition field as well. Submissions must be “clearly relevant to the work of college writing teachers and responsive to recent scholarship in composition studies” (“CCC submission information”). Published quarterly. Subscription fee: $75 nonmember, $25 with NCTE membership, $7.50 student membership.
Availability: Hard copies from 1950-present available, online database of articles (JSTOR III) available from 1950-2003.
Analysis: Generally this is a very accessible journal, printing useful scholarship that is quite representative of the field. One big positive to this journal is its diversity, it is able to adequately represent the ever-increasing scope of the rhet/comp field. It is conscious of its prominent place in the field, and attempts to engage scholars in conversations going on, in special sections of the journal.
Recent Comments