Call for Papers Rhetoric, Uncertainty, and the University as Text: How Students Construct the Academic Experience A Collection of Essays on Student Writing in the First Year of University to be published by Canadian Plains Research Centre University of Regina The ways that students experience university are reflected in the articulated and non-articulated, overt and covert messages they create in the course of their university careers. We propose that in particular student writing, especially in the first year, is, far from being a direct reflection of acquired knowledge and skills, a symptom of students' perception-and misperception-of the learning environment itself: the university as text. We wish to explore the possible positive and negative ramifications of this hypothesis. We want to ask questions such as: What is the impact of apparent uncertainty on the nature and value of academic knowledge? Can the discipline of rhetoric supply a method for articulating uncertainty as a learning model, and if so how can this be presented? What is the impact of uncertainty on how we assess student performance? We invite papers that address these and related issues: Student Writing as Genre The Politics of the Classroom Personal Writing in First-year Courses The Polarities of Process and Product Student Perspectives on Academic and Public Writing The Difference between First- and Fourth-Year Writing Evaluating Student Writing Revised Deadline for Submission: January 2, 2000 Contact: Judy Chapman Andrew Stubbs First Year Services Department of English University of Regina University of Regina Regina, Saskatchewan Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2 S4S 0A2 Canada Canada Phone: 306-585-4760 Phone: 306-585-4316 [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] Fax: 306-585-4056 Fax: 306-585-4827 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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, the annual conference, and publications, go to the Inkshed Web site at http://www.StThomasU.ca/inkshed/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-