I went to the Computers & Writing conference this last weekend. It was all my friend Deb’s fault. She said we should both go, since it is at Purdue this year and we’re both alums. However, then she had other things she had to do. So… I was here alone, which is not the best way to do a conference.
Poster Presentations
Poster presentations. I went to that because of my Writing in the Social Sciences course. One of the posters was not as well done as my class’ posters. It was the one that looked most like theirs. One looked a lot like one of my better student posters, except that it was printed on the poster board. Two were very long and professionally published. They both looked good.
The most useful of the poster presentations was about a book that is coming out in Creative Commons.
They also had a CFP for Volume 3. (We got a sneak preview because the CFP isn’t coming out for three weeks. I’d publish it here, but I’m not sure that’s okay.) I guess I could input it here and release it in three weeks. One thing I know they don’t want for the third volume is work on invention. Vol. 1 ended up being primarily about invention.
It’s a text for writing written by various teachers. Vol. 1 has 16 essays. I think Vol. 2 has about the same. They are all being “published” under the auspices of Parlor Press.
Vol. 1 will be officially released in about three weeks. It’s being uploaded online and you can download any of the PDFs and use them (for non-commercial use). Parlor Press is hoping that if large campuses, like Tech or USF decided to use them as a text, they would pay for an organized in their order print edition. I think that could work. I know I would actually like print editions, though I am sure the PDFs will work just as well, if not better, for the classroom.
Waiting Till the Last Minute
I saw someone putting their poster together at 1, for a 2:15 session. I’m not sure we’re any different from our students, in terms of waiting to the last minute.
The people at the 3rd panel were talking about people creating their presentations last night.
Clothing
Clothing was very fluid. I saw everything in terms of dress except three-piece suits.
I saw men in coats and ties. No women in fancy dresses, but there were women in dresses and in suits.
There were some jeans, but no jeans and tee shirts. If they were wearing a tee shirt, it was with a dressier bottom. However, my dress pants and shirt were perfectly appropriate, even if I did cheat a bit and wear my tennis shoes.
Visiting
I did get to visit with Janice Lauer (Hutton). We spent about an hour together. She caught me up on Nancy DeJoy, Joan Karbach, Beth, Claire, and Karen Griggs. I told her how Deb Williams is doing.
It was great to see her. Honestly I think she looks younger now than she did when I saw her last at my graduation 10 years ago. I thanked her for helping me get through.
She suggested getting in touch with Lisa McCrady (sp?) of Chicago, who is doing online stuff, and Michael Goss who’s with TYCA and is at Lee College. I’m fairly sure I have met him at some conference (probably TYCA-SW or CCTE), but I didn’t know he was a Purdue alum in rhet and comp.
I enjoy Computers and Writing. I will have to think of what I can do for next year. Maybe work on a paper on using Twitter in business writing.