Submission Information

CCC Guidelines for Writers

CCC provides a forum for critical work on the study and teaching of reading and writing at the college level. Contributors approach this central concern from a number of perspectives: Some articles focus directly on teaching practices, others locate those practices in their historical and institutional contexts, still others connect current work in composition studies to that going on elsewhere in English and related fields-among them literacy studies, critical theory, cultural studies, education, ethnography, communication, philosophy of language, and rhetoric. Many articles in CCC attempt to blur genres and mix discourses, to cut across and make connections among a range of intellectual and professional issues.

The particular challenge for contributors to CCC is to write a scholarly and critical prose that evidences the same kind of clarity, precision, grace, and wit that we teach for in our classes. The work of academic writers often needs to be highly complex, allusive, and nuanced, but that is not at all the same as prose that is needlessly dense or plodding. An article on the teaching of writing should itself be well written.

Articles for CCC need to be responsive to recent work in composition studies, even though they may often draw on a wide range of other experiences and disciplinary knowledges as well. Pieces that simply restate or apply familiar work on writing or teaching do not merit publication in CCC. The goal of writers for CCC should rather be to add to, extend, inflect, or revise current work on composition and its teaching. At the same time, this should not result in work that is of interest to only a small subset of specialists in the field. Instead the reader of most CCC articles might best be imagined as a teacher and scholar who is familiar with the broad range of issues discussed in the journal, but who is perhaps not deeply conversant with the specific topic being addressed-so that the task of a writer for CCC involves both making a point about a particular aspect of work in composition, and relating that point to more general issues and concerns in the field.

Length, Format, and Documentation: Most articles in CCC run between 4,000 and 7,000 words (or approximately 16 to 28 double-spaced pages), though some pieces are shorter or longer, as the subject calls for. All CCC articles are documented according to the MLA Handbook, 4th edition. Some writers make extensive use of endnotes; others do not use them at all. The choice has to do with the particular style and ambition of the writer. Similarly, there is no policy concerning the use of subheadings or article divisions. They should instead be used (or not used) for particular effects and specific reasons. It should be noted, though, that CCC does not often publish articles written in the form of a research study or report. Most pieces take a more essayistic form that allows the writer to argue for a point as well as to present the results of research.

Citing Unpublished Work: One of the most characteristic and striking features of work in composition is an interest in the writing of students, as well as in other unpublished forms of writing-forms, memos, letters, internet postings, assignments, comments on papers, and other teaching and professional materials. Many CCC articles reproduce such work. To do so, however, you must obtain written permission to use their work from the authors (especially students) of these materials, even when you plan to cite them anonymously. Permission forms are available from the CCC editor.

Interchanges and Reviews: CCC strongly encourages readers to write in response to articles. Responses running between 500 and 2,000 words (or about 2 to 8 typed pages) will be considered for publication in the Interchanges section. Some Interchange pieces are also assigned by the editor. Most notices of Recent Books are written by the editorial staff, and longer Review Articles are assigned by the editor.

Submission and Review of Articles: Please send three clean copies of an article, along with postage for mailing to two outside readers. If you wish a copy of your piece back, please state so and enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. If you have an email address, please note that as well. Articles will be read blind by outside reviewers, so please make sure that your name appears only on a separate cover page. Double-space all sections of your text-including block quotations, endnotes, and works cited. Do not use footnotes.

About half of the submissions to CCC are sent to outside readers after review by the editorial staff. In 1996, CCC received 165 submissions-not including revisions, reviews, and interchanges-and accepted 15, a rate slightly over 9%. You should receive prompt acknowledgment of receipt of your piece by either postcard or email, followed by a report on its status from the editor within ten to twelve weeks. The time between acceptance and publication is usually less than a year. Authors receive four copies of the issue in which their work appears. Please feel free to write or call the editor if you have any questions about submitting work to CCC.

Joseph Harris
CCC Editor
English Dept, 501 CL
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Phone: (412)  624-6531
Fax: (412)  624-6639
Email: jharris@pop.pitt.edu

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