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Archival research of any magnitude can be daunting. With this in mind, Alexis E. Ramsey, Wendy B. Sharer, Barbara L’Eplattenier, and Lisa Mastrangelo have developed an indispensable volume for the first-time researcher as well as the seasoned scholar. Working in the Archives is a guide to the world of rhetoric and composition archives, from locating an archival source and its materials to establishing one’s own collection of archival materials. This practical volume provides insightful information on a variety of helpful topics, such as basic archival theory, processes, and principles; the use of hidden or digital archives; the intricacies of searching for and using letters and photographs; strategies for addressing the dilemmas of archival organization without damaging the provenance of materials; the benefits of seeking sources outside academia; and the difficult (yet often rewarding) aspects of research on the Internet.

Working in the Archives moves beyond the basics to discuss the more personal and emotional aspects of archival work through the inclusion of interviews with experienced researchers such as Lynée Lewis Gaillet, Peter Mortensen, Kathryn Fitzgerald, Kenneth Lindblom, and David Gold. Each shares his or her personal stories of the joys and challenges that face today’s researchers.          

Packed with useful recommendations, this volume draws on the knowledge and experiences of experts to present a well-rounded guidebook to the often winding paths of academic archival investigation. These in-depth yet user-friendly essays provide crucial answers to the myriad questions facing both fledgling and practiced researchers, making Working in the Archives an essential resource.

Writing Center Administrators as Campus Leaders challenges the current erasure of the WCA role within discourse on campus leadership by highlighting the various ways these leaders have had transformative impacts on their institutions, emphasizing the wide range of knowledge, skills, and added value that WCAs bring to the university ecosystem.

Contributors from diverse institutions, institutional contexts, identity formations, and career paths theorize different forms of leadership from within and beyond writing centers. The first section brings together perspectives on leadership theory and practice, focusing on the practical gains offered and challenges afforded via writing center professional pathways. The second section emphasizes partnerships and networks forged through intentional and creative leadership models. In the final section, contributors consider the emotional and affective dimensions of WCA labor, offering multiple roadmaps for WCAs to transition their experiences into more recognition, resources, and broader administrative roles while underscoring the potential of inclusive, community-focused leadership for current and aspiring WCAs.

Providing key insights and practical examples, Writing Center Administrators as Campus Leaders validates and inspires current and future WCAs and informs university administrators on the ways that WCAs can and do impact higher education as true campus leaders.

Despite the adage “there are no writing emergencies,” at times situations invite or require immediate written response. In a modern era of social media and with the constancy of “crisis,” knowing when, how, and why to respond quickly is increasingly important. In Writing Emergencies, a diverse group of authors contribute scholarly, narrative-based discussions of writing emergencies, descriptions of more and less successful strategies, and a reflective conclusion that offers implications for writing studies praxis and theory.

In this collection, contributors demonstrate the reality of writing emergencies—in their own writing lives, classrooms, and programs—and they offer both self- and community-focused approaches for response. Chapters focus on discernment and prioritization, recognizing that all stressors are not necessarily emergencies. Instead, expanding our vocabulary for (and subsequent understanding) of the kinds of difficulties we come across can build our professional capacity and support greater career sustainability. The volume also illustrates the role of coalitions in navigating writing emergencies and how purposefully building and activating these coalitions subverts some challenges before they become emergencies, particularly those that are recurrent or manufactured.

Writing Emergencies both names and grapples with writing emergencies and offers insights for capacity-building in the acts of filtering and prioritizing competing urgent demands. The findings are meaningful for all leaders, students, and teachers who center care in their relationships with others.

In Writing Expertise, Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle address the question, “How can instructors across disciplines best help students write well?” Drawing on research about how disciplines use writing to engage in shared ways of thinking, practicing, and demonstrating knowledge, the authors offer an approach that helps faculty across the disciplines invite students to bring new ideas and identities to their work. Throughout the book, Adler-Kassner and Wardle help instructors explore what it means to write well in their courses, fields, or disciplines and offer strategies and activities that can help them improve their assignments by infusing research-based writing activities into their courses.

Writing Expertise provides an innovative, equity- and research-based approach to writing in the disciplines that will enrich instructor and student thinking. Thoughtful discussions and well-designed activities provide the support needed to help instructors put disciplinary thinking into written form, develop systematic aways of learning about the students who write in their courses, and ultimately develop more effective, inclusive courses.

Writing Opportunities presents in-depth text histories illustrating the interrelationship of writing, identities, and belonging in college writing transitions. Drawing on more than two years of research with three Latinx/a/o students transitioning from the same high school class to the local university, Brad Jacobson brings together analyses of interview transcripts, student writing, classroom genres, and institutional policies to foreground a sense of belonging as central to writing development and learning.

Including interviews with students and their instructors, Jacobson traces writing opportunities that Hercules, Jain, and Lucy were afforded as they transitioned from high school to college writing, particularly in general education courses. Chapters attend to multiple levels of interaction to show how policies, practices, and social histories can impact opportunities for learning. With attention to dominant discourses of writing that narrow what counts as good writing as well as positive opportunity structures that extend possibilities for identification, engagement, and deep learning, Jacobson also posits writing as an opportunity for writers to explore possibilities for who we are and who we may become.

Jacobson’s humanizing research invites readers to consider opportunity from multiple perspectives and shows how subtle shifts in relationships among students, instructors, and institutions can increase meaningful learning and provide a sense of belonging in educational contexts.

This edited collection arises from the belief that the field of writing studies, with its deep engagement in the power of language, is uniquely positioned to open new pathways for international scholarly dialogue in writing studies and beyond. Integrating diverse theoretical traditions—including discourse studies, language pedagogy, educational psychology, educational management, and critical sociolinguistics—the editors have brought together work from key Latin American scholars published over the past two decades. The result is a book that points to future directions for the increasingly global field of writing studies. The collection includes work by Natalia Ávila Reyes, Charles Bazerman, Paula Carlino, Valentina Fahler, Ivone Inés Jakob, Judith Kalman, Angela B. Kleiman, Vera Lúcia Lopes Cristovão, Anna Rachel Machado, Jonathan Marine, Juan David Martínez Hincapié, Paulina Meza, Violate Molina Natera, Désirée Motta-Roth, Estela I. Moyano, Elvira Narvaja de Arnoux, Lucía Natale, Federico Navarro, Giovanni Parodi, Luisa Pelizza, María Cecilia Pereira, Pablo Rosales, Daniela Paula Stagnaro, Alicia Vázquez, René Venegas, and Virginia Zavala.

Addressing how composers transfer both knowledge about and practices of writing, Writing across Contexts explores the grounding theory behind a specific composition curriculum called Teaching for Transfer (TFT) and analyzes the efficacy of the approach. Finding that TFT courses aid students in transfer in ways that other kinds of composition courses do not, the authors demonstrate that the content of this curriculum, including its reflective practice, provides a unique set of resources for students to call on and repurpose for new writing tasks.

The authors provide a brief historical review, give attention to current curricular efforts designed to promote such transfer, and develop new insights into the role of prior knowledge in students' ability to transfer writing knowledge and practice, presenting three models of how students respond to and use new knowledge—assemblage, remix, and critical incident.

A timely and significant contribution to the field, Writing across Contexts will be of interest to graduate students, composition scholars, WAC and writing-in-the-disciplines scholars, and writing program administrators.