A "no" from me! I'm one of the ones pleading ignorance.
Wendy
Wendy L. Kraglund-Gauthier
Camden Hall 113
St. Francis Xavier University
Antigonish, NS B2G 2W5
(902) 867-4530 fax: 867-5380
________________________________
From: CASLL/Inkshed on behalf of Betsy Sargent
Sent: Sun 17/12/2006 11:29 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Speaking of which
Dear Inkshedders (whatever that may mean!),
I ended my previous email with a statement of
gratitude for the online community of Inkshed and
am now hoping for an occasion to be even more
grateful, even at this busy time of year. I'm
hoping for a simple "yes" or "no" from anyone
who's listening (see the question below).
Apparently, Canadian organizations are no more
prone to introspection than US ones, since WPA
(the Council of Writing Program
Administrators)--because it is turning 30 this
year--is devoting two sessions to introspection
at the Modern Language Association Convention
(Dec. 27-30 in Philadelphia). Having just
finished giving my exams, I'm realizing that I
foolishly promised (long ago) to say something at
one of these sessions about possible useful roles
for the WPA in Canada. If any of you have
thoughts on that subject, I'm all ears (on- or
off-line), but most important to me right now is
a one-word reply to the following question.
Has the WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year
Composition been useful to you in your work in
Canada in any way, as a CASLL/Inkshed member
(that is, a person who is interested in Language and Learning)?
Yes or No?
I'll paste in below the URL for the WPA Outcomes
Statement, but it actually is more useful to me
if you just give a quick reply off the top of
your head, without checking the statement out (on
the assumption that if it's been useful in any
way to you so far, you'd already have some
impression of it, good or bad--and if it hasn't,
you'll know that without needing to invest any
time in reading it, whether for the 10th or the first time).
Please feel free to just say "no" (if, for
instance, you have no idea what I'm talking about
or if you have never used the WPA Outcomes
Statement for any purpose whatsoever or if you
feel neutral towards it or if you feel it's pernicious in some way).
Also please feel free to just say "yes" (if you
don't have time to go into any detail about how
you used it, I can always email you directly for
further details, not that you'd need to give
them). A quick "yes" or "no" would more useful
to me than a decision to wait to respond because
you have a lot to say about the WPA Outcomes
Statement and no time to say it now (though as I
say, anything you have to say about it would
interest me--just feel free to do that later, if you don't have time now).
I won't be mentioning any names in connection
with these "yes" or "no" answers--just doing a
quick total (how many answers online within 48
hours, how many were "yes," how many were
"no"). If you email me anything further about
the WPA or its statement, let me know if you want
your comments to be attributed to you by name or not.
Many many thanks! Betsy
______________________
I'm pasting in here a description of and
invitation to these two WPA sessions (plus
reception) from the WPA website, in case anyone
is interested (talk about group identity
confusion--I'm a WPA member even though I'm not a
Writing Program Administrator):
Dear WPA Members and Friends:
If you're going to MLA in Philadelphia this year,
please note these WPA events on your convention schedules:
(more details available at
<http://wpacouncil.org/node/532>http://wpacouncil.org/node/532)
Panel: "Moving toward Inclusion: Thirty Years of
the Council of Writing Program Administrators,"
Friday, December 29th, 1:45-3:00 p.m., Room 307
of the Philadelphia Marriott
(internationalization is one of the issues being discussed in this session).
Panel: "Challenges of the Future: Foregrounding
Diversity in the WPA Palette" Saturday, December
30th, noon to 1:15, Room 302 of the Philadelphia Marriott.
WPA 30th Anniversary Reception: 5:00-7:00 on the
evening of Friday, December 29 at the Hilton
Garden Inn (1100 Arch St) in Philadelphia,
sponsored by the Council of Writing Program
Administrators, the Philadelphia Writing Program
Administrators, Temple University, and York College of Pennsylvania.
Please join us if you're in Philadelphia!
Shirley Rose
President
____________________________
Below are two URLs for the WPA Outcomes Statement
(I hope they both work, but the second one,
posted at the U of A Writing Task Force website,
should definitely work--if it doesn't, please let me know).
http://wpacouncil.org/positions/outcomes.html?PHPSESSID=7cb84e682a3fea1ede1e180f20fbbf7c
http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/arts//pdfs/WTF_WPA_Outcomes.pdf
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For the list archives and information about the organization,
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
[log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
For the list archives and information about the organization,
its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/
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