Guide for Authors

Guide for Authors

Who We Are

The editorial staff of Writing Commons invites the submission of webtexts intending to help college students improve their writing, research, and critical thinking. We conceive of our site as a creative space in which we enable writers to develop and share open-education resources; our site is open and free, and, subsequently, its content is constantly in flux. 

We are concerned primarily with providing students with a comprehensive resource of examples and explanations (in textual and multimedia forms, among others) that apply to the writing practices required of them in nearly all writing contexts: academic, professional, technical, and business.   

Webtexts Needed

For this interdisciplinary project, we seek webtexts from a variety of fields (academic, professional, technical, business writing, among others). While Writing Commons is open to all submissions and prides itself on innovation, we have specific needs for articles in the following subjects: Poetry, Creative Writing, Technical Writing, and New Media genres.  

Call for Submissions

• We especially encourage webtexts that can be used by First-Year Composition students in the Fall of 2012. To read about our immediate needs, please click on our Writing Commons FYC call for papers.
• Call for Articles: Sections on Style and Grammar
  

Before beginning your project, you may want to send a brief proposal to Quentin Vieregge (Quentin at writingcommons dot org) to confirm that your idea matches our needs. Submission to Writing Commons is a dialogic process, and we encourage authors to collaborate closely with our editors when revising and rethinking the submission after the initial draft has been accepted or accepted with revisions. Writing Commons values accessibility, innovation, and the use of multi-media forms.

Audience

The readership for your article/submission includes teachers of college-level writing at diverse institutions and literacy centers, but, most importantly, your audience is undergraduate students in writing courses. To address such an audience, avoid difficult theories or complex discussions of research and issues or detailed discussions of pedagogy; rather, consider the interests and perspectives of students, with various levels of expertise, working through college-level writing projects. Brief references to outside sources may be helpful but for the purposes of exposition to an undergraduate audience. 

For instance, many Writing Commons publications will introduce a rhetorical concept or term, briefly define it, and then explain how it could be applied to the everyday writing of undergraduates or writing in a professional or personal sphere. Feel free to include exercises and/or discussion questions which could be used by teachers or students in the classroom.

Length

The typical Writing Commons submission will be approximately 1,000 words long; although longer webtexts are encouraged.

Hyperlinks to External Sites

We welcome and encourage the inclusion of links to external webtexts; however, we ask that you use them rhetorically.

Documentation Style

All articles should be documented according to the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (2nd ed.).

Submissions

• should be otherwise free of internal references to the author’s identity*
• should include a brief byline of the author/s
• will be submitted to blind review by external readers

Your submission should include the following documents:

• Cover Letter: A very brief cover letter introducing your webtext and its title; you might use this letter to voice any concerns/questions you have about the text.  
• Webtext: Please e-mail your submission as a Word attachment.
• Byline and Info: Attach your byline in a separate document. Your byline might include your name, institution, research interests, and selected publications. Bylines should be about 50 words long. Also, please provide your preferred e-mail address, phone number (with area code), and mailing address. 
• Creative Commons Copyright Form: To be signed when your webtext is approved for publication.

Please use the following format when saving these Word files:

• Last Name, First Name. "Cover Letter"
• Last Name, First Name. “Title of Webtext”
• Last Name, First Name. “Byline”

If you are submitting podcasts, videos, or composing a multi-page hyperlinked text (which we strongly encourage), please e-mail Quentin Vieregge directly for specific directions. 

Submit manuscripts, cover letters and bylines to: Quentin Vieregge; e-mail: Quentin at writingcommons dot org

Review

Because webtexts are more concise than traditional academic essays, we intend to have a quick turn-around time; from initial submission to notification of the submission’s status, please allow approximately four weeks.

*Articles will be read blind by outside reviewers, so please make sure that your name does not appear on the title page or first page and that you do not identify yourself in the text or in the list of works cited. Please include your address, phone number, and e-mail address with all submissions.