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Hello –

Thanks for bringing this up, Russ. Though I was only at two Inkshed gatherings, Inkshed provided me, professionally, grounding in academic writing and the academic writing community, at a time when the CWCA was struggling with its existence. The CWCA meeting at STLHE in 2012 had only 5 people in a small boardroom at McGill, two of which were Inkshedders. Theresa Hyland calls Inkshed the “grandmother” of both CASDW and CWCA.

The listserve and archive are extremely important to the story of academic writing, rhetoric, and the community in the Canadian context. The fact that this discussion is occurring here is a sign of its usefulness! With the number of means of communicating online, e-mail still requires direct attention.

As Margaret mentioned, she’s written an excellent piece for the Writing Lab Newsletter blog, which will go up Oct 23rd. I’m hoping that this post will provide greater audience for the work of Inkshed, the Inkshed archives, the story of academic writing in Canada, and those who were involved. I’ll post it to the listserve when it’s up. For the archived newsletters, etc., I suggest that these should be backed up in multiple locations. It might be an idea to have the archive linked from the IWCA website and other regional and national writing centre associations  – I can look into this, if there is interest.

The wiki idea is a great one, esp. with a bibliography. It may also be a moment to consider an edited volume of the letters and publications of Inkshed, published by Inkshed, of course…

Thanks,

Brian


Director, Academic Learning Services,
Studio for Teaching and Learning
Saint Mary’s University
Burke 111
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C: 902-292-5006
O: 902-491-6202

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Saint Mary’s University is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq.


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From: "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Russell Hunt <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, October 12, 2018 at 8:47 PM
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: The extinction of Inkshed

Let me try to respond to a number of emails in one, to avoid causing unnecessary RSI . . .

Doug says he thinks it's good to have the newsletters accessible, but says that's already happening: on the other hand, Carl says he couldn't find his own article in it, looking for it specifically. I think the issue is practical accessibility, and right now, where it is on the CASDW site, it's accessible but not exactly findable. It's like being on the library shelf but not in the catalog. I think that's the point Natasha makes, and Carolyn agrees with (as do I).

Kathy makes what I think is a brilliant suggestion: a wikipedia entry. I am (or anyway was at one time) a wikipedia editor. I propose to explore that and draft an entry, inviting other inkshedders to become editors (or exercise their editorship) to help. Not sure how quickly that can happen, because I'm off for Scotland and Ireland for a couple of weeks on Tuesday, and my dance card for the next few days is filling up, but I'll take a run at it.

I'm puzzled by Lois' posting, but on the assumption that it was intended for me and went to the list in error (like Brenda's signoff message), I'll suggest it be ignored on the list.

I'd like to reiterate (contra Doug) that I think the archive of CASLL-L is itself an important resource. Yes, the postings on it are rather like inksheds, in that they were  situational and thus narrow and perhaps intended to be forgotten once used, like inksheds or conversation; on the other hand it's a record of where ideas arose and developed, and when, at least after 1995. As a LISTSERV archive, it's searchable by date and topic and poster, and I think is sort of like a steamer trunk full of correspondence, except there's an index on the cover. I think it's worth trying to make sure it survives and is accessible (at least until climate change floods all the servers . . . )

I also think a bibliography of inkshed-related publications would be a useful resource, and might become part of a wikipedia entry. But that's a more ambitious project than I want to think about on a Friday night.

Thank you to everybody who replied.

-- Russ

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      To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL-L command to
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        To view or search the list archives, go to
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