Understanding the Rhetoric of Research

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There are a number of journals in English studies that now have Web sites with submission information, current articles, and archived articles. More and more journals, however, are becoming specifically online journals, in which information is meant to be read only online and is presented in hypertext. In this section, we will explore six of the contemporary research journals online and note their strengths and weaknesses in presentation and style. Most of the following information is taken from the mission statements of the various publications.

1) academic.writing: http://aw.colostate.edu

academic.writing is strictly an online text. It offers World Wide Web access to a wide range of additional materials, including posts to Web forums, teaching materials, writing-across-the-curriculum program proposals and reviews, and a range of primary research materials as well as an opportunity for interaction among various researchers and professionals. Unlike a conventional online journal, which mirrors the volume/issue format of print journals, this journal is designed to function as an evolving, growing document (or, more accurately, a collection of documents) on the Web.

This journal is still in its preliminary stages but hopes to offer the following materials via the Web: submissions sent to an editorial board, a formal table of contents for each volume, and additional navigational aids to provide alternative ways of accessing materials on the site. At regular intervals, announcements about the new materials on the site will be published. Similarly, regular calls will be published for submissions and invitations for special editions of the journal.

2) Kairos: http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/

Billed as "A Journal For Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments," Kairos welcomes contributions from scholars pursuing a wide variety of online issues, from theory to praxis. This journal carries regular feature articles, a CoverWeb, reviews, news, and response sections, any of which are often interlinked, since the medium affords this advantage. Kairos offers abstracts of each article and then a hotlink to actual article. Kairos works in a standard, printed format breaking the site into each volume and issue. One of the interesting sections Kairos has is an online forum to discuss the various issues and articles presented in each issue.

Kairos will only publish "native" Webtexts (i.e. composed in/for hypertext or the World-Wide Web); any submissions which could be printed in a traditional paper-journal are not appropriate to this venue. They look to publish: empirical research reports conducted in and relating to Web-based writing classrooms; sample syllabi, with notes and commentary from the teachers and students; editorials from teachers regarding past experiences; theoretical essays designed to help ground practice in pedagogical theory and vice-versa; commentary on resources, including Websites, M**spaces, listservs, newsgroups and print resources; reviews of pertinent software and papertexts; other additions based on appropriate submissions and recommendations from the editorial board.

3) Computers and Composition: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ccjrnl/

Computers and Composition is billed as an "International Journal". This site offers a choice in format in either a normal or text only version of the articles. The current online issue runs simultaneously with the printed version offering separate articles in each format. The online journal from Computers and Composition offers an abstract of the print articles and a completely different section for the online journal. The purpose of this site is to provide news, resources, and features on the topic of computers and composition, going beyond traditional print formats to include audio, sound, video, and hypertext. Contributions may take the form of electronic manuscripts, hypertexts, multimedia constructions, or Web documents in HTML format. They are willing to publish submissions on a wide range of topics related to computers and composition, including reports of research, reflective or theoretical essays, personal accounts of teaching experiences, book and software reviews, professional articles, or bibliographies.

4) College Composition and Communication Online: http://www.ncte.org/ccc/

This site offers three initial choices in viewing: a full graphics section, a light graphics section, or text only. This is a tri-annual publication still using the notions of volumes and issues to delineate their online publication. This journal offers nothing more than abstracts for the current printed text. It does, however, offer the following: As communication becomes increasingly multimedia and hypertextual, potential contributors to CCC may feel limited by the constraints of publishing their work in a conventional print journal. Consequently, CCC Online's Parallels provides an electronic space in which authors are welcome publish materials that complement their texts accepted for publication and printed in the paper edition of CCC. The Parallels section is like an electronic appendix to the print version of the journal.

5) College English: http://omega.cc.umb.edu/~ce

College English offers very little currently in the way of online materials. It is structured in a traditional manner with volumes and issues. It offers no choice as to a format preference. College English offers a "highlights" section for each coinciding printed issue, simply offering a brief abstract of the issue's main articles. The table of contents section for the issue archives offers nothing more than article titles and authors. Submissions must be sent to the College English postal address in printed form. No articles are online and a subscription is needed to read the printed articles.

6) English Journal: http://www.cc.ysu.edu/tej/

Also published by NCTE, the English Journal Website mirrors that of College English. There is little to no information readily available online except for issue article titles and authors as well as submission guidelines. Similar to College English, all submissions must be printed and mailed to the given postal address.

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