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An interesting thread (gmail keeps all these messages together for me as one string), but I'm starting to think there are two kinds of publications being talked about here. "The Newsletter" as it was in the 2000s wasn't really a newsletter (of the newsletter genre) at all. People were putting substantial pieces in it, and it really functioned more as a quasi -journal. The comments so far argue against using Facebook for that kind of publication, and I think I would agree with that. Now, news and less formal writing that I think we would associate with the genre of the newsletter really should be transmitted via one of the new electronic genres of publication--blog, FB, something like that. If we were starting a new writing studies organization in Canada in 2012, would we really create a newsletter to facilitate exchanges of information? I doubt it. 

Part of the problem is generational: when did newsletters proliferate? I associate it with the advent of desktop publishing in the early 1980s, or perhaps it is associated with the typewriter and the spread of cheap photocopying in the 1970s. As a medium of exchange, it is one-way: from the authors, through the editor, to the readers. There is no liveliness to it, no flattening of the information hierarchy, no spreading of the author function. The "news" part of the Newsletter should migrate to a social media site--no question about that in my mind. The extended discourse part of the Newsletter should migrate to a publication with a more formal title, a clear review process/notification, and an online publication format (not paper). 

If we want to attract new members and if we want to take advantage of the affordances of new technologies to support communication and interaction, we should re-think our traditional methods of exchanging information. Among the various advantages would be the ability to maintain a link to other blogs/online resources such as Rachel Cayley's blog on Academic Writing:
http://explorationsofstyle.wordpress.com/author-bio/
and Tania Smith's blog, EduRhetor: http://edurhetor.wordpress.com/

The traditional Newsletter format isn't going to do that well.

Roger


 

On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 6:47 PM, Margaret Procter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I'm with you on boycotting FB for public purposes too, I'm afraid. When I volunteered to be newsletter editor, I was thinking of a simple HTML display that could go on the Inkshed website, with a PDF version also given for people to print out if they prefer to read that way.

The biggest need of the newsletter is of course content! I am inclined to kidnap (but I'll ask nicely) Susan Drain's minutes from the meeting in Fredericton as a first item. Anybody else want to write up a note summarizing or responding to a topic discussed there? As someone who had to miss the afternoon session to catch a plane, I'd be interested in knowing more and maybe extending those discussions.

Margaret




On 08/06/2011 8:11 PM, Tyler Evans-Tokaryk wrote:
Add my name to the list of those reluctant to use FB for CASLL communication.

Dr. Tyler Evans-Tokaryk
Lecturer, RGASC
University of Toronto Mississauga
--Please excuse the brevity; this message was sent from my BlackBerry.

From: Betsy Sargent <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 14:50:50 -0400
ReplyTo: "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Facebook Group: Newsletter Site

I'm with Russ and Susan on this one--my privacy settings on Facebook are the highest possible and I use it only for family.
Betsy

At 12:34 PM 6/8/2011, Russ Hunt wrote:
I've drawn a ring of fire around my Facebook site: only my immediate family are allowed in. So I'm with Susan. I'm not clear what the advantages of using FB for a newsletter would be.-- Russ

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.
From: [log in to unmask]
Sender: "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 18:23:53 +0000
To: <[log in to unmask]>
ReplyTo: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Facebook Group: Newsletter Site
I quit Facebook four years ago: if we use it for the newsletter, please let's have another medium too.Susan

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.
From: Michael Ryan <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 13:59:27 -0400
To: <[log in to unmask]>
ReplyTo: "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Facebook Group: Newsletter Site
Dear All:
 
    I mentioned that I have created [June 2009] a "group" on Facebook - called - INKSHED.  It was meant to hold the name.  However, there are some imitators.  Roger Graves has suggested this could be a site for the newsletter. 
 
    To all who are members of CASLL and FB, I suggest you join.  It is free and supposedly painless.
 
    Best regards,
 
 
Michael J. Ryan
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M. Elizabeth (Betsy) Sargent
Director of Writing Initiatives and
Interim Director, Writing Studies (OIS)
Professor, Department of English and Film Studies
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB  T6G 2E5
CANADA
(780) 492-0457 (office)
Humanities Centre 3-79
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"You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."
--Ray Bradbury

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