Masthead CMC Magazine December 1, 1995 / Page 9


CMC NEWS

New Journal for Teachers of Writing on the Web to Launch Next Year

Kairos to hit the Web in January

The inaugural issue of Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments, sponsored by the Alliance for Computers and Writing (ACW) is due to hit the Web on January 8, 1996. Kairos will be published three times a year, to coincide with the beginnings of new academic terms in January, May, and September.

The journal is designed to serve as a peer-reviewed resource for teachers, researchers and tutors of writing at the college and university level, including Technical Writing, Business Writing, Professional Communication, Creative Writing, Composition, and Literature. Kairos employs an Editorial Board includes scholars from Michigan, Purdue, Texas Tech, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Michigan Tech, Auburn, Pittsburgh, Bowling Green, and O'Reilly & Associates, while the staff includes individuals from these schools as well as Ball State and SUNY-Binghamton. Jason Teague of IBM is the journal's Production Manager and Graphics coordinator.

The inaugural issue is set to include contributions from Ohio State's Andrea Lunsford, co-author of Singular Texts/Plural Authors; Purdue's Johndan Johnson-Eilola, author of the forthcoming Nostalgic Angels; hypertext pioneer Michael Joyce; and ACW co-director Fred Kemp, among others. The "cover web" for the first issue will be a multi-authored effort examining Online Writing Labs (OWLs) in academia.

The name of the journal, according to editor Mick Doherty, is carefully chosen to represent the kind(s) of writing happening on the World-Wide Web and in other hypertextual environments.

"Kairos is a word with layers of meaning." says Doherty. "Usually, it's defined in terms of its classical Greek courtroom history--that winning an argument requires a combination of creating and recognizing the right time and right place for making the argument in the first place."

However, Doherty adds, "the word also has roots in weaving, the creating of an opening, and archery, the seizing of, and striking forcefully through, an opening. In hypertextual environments, writers are not only learning to strike forcefully in the traditional sense of presenting the correct words in the proper manner, but are also learning to weave a writing space that is more personal than the standard sheet of paper."

Assistant Editor Elizabeth Pass adds, "Kairos is a true hypertext journal, meaning it explores all aspects of the pedagogical and scholarly uses of hypertext, and is published entirely in a hypertextual format."

According to Kairos Links Editor Greg Siering, this "personal approach" to constructing writing spaces should appeal to students and teachers of writing alike. "The nature of writing in our postmodern, electronic culture is rapidly changing," says Siering. "In part due to advances in hypertext theory and technology. Not every hypertext will be the same--that's part of its attraction." [CMC TOC]


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