CCC Online Editorials

CCC Online
Editorials

Editorials from 49.1 February, 1998

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From the Editor
Copyright and Consent

A few years ago in these pages I sketched out a new set of guidelines for securing permission to quote the writings of students in CCC ("From the Editor," December 1994, pp. 439-41). While arguing that perhaps what most characterizes work in composition is its interest in student writing, I also suggested that we need to distinguish between writing that has been revised and vetted for publication, and work of a more informal sort, or that was first intended for a smaller group of readers (a course or listserv, for instance), or that is simply still in an earlier stage of development. I thus announced a new policy which requires contributors to CCC to obtain written permission from any students whose work they wish to quote in their articles. My sense then was that this policy simply formalized our long-standing commitment to engaging the writings of students in ways that are as fair, open, and intellectually serious as we can make them. But I have since been persuaded by Paul Anderson-whose essay, "Simple Gifts: Ethical Issues in the Conduct of Person-Based Composition Research," appears in this issue-that the question is often not merely one of copyright, of who owns a particular text, but of prior and informed consent, of a willingness to be not just a student in a course but a subject in a study. I remember (vaguely) a New Yorker cartoon which depicted a quarreling couple-the woman with her arms folded, smirking, as if having just made a particularly telling point, the man gesturing as if about to issue some sort of response or rebuttal, but first asking: "Before I reply, I want to know, will this go into your novel?" We want to make sure that we don't place students in similar situations, in which they're not quite sure whether their remarks or writings may end up in our articles and books, or if they really do have much say in the matter.

Paul Anderson and I hope to open up broader discussion of these issues at a Special Interest Group session at the upcoming CCCC in Chicago on "Publishing Student Writing: Copyright, Consent, and Permission Issues for Researchers" (Session G1, Friday, April 3, 9.30-10.45 am). We have invited a number of leading administrators, editors, and researchers in English studies to speak briefly and informally at this session, including Phyllis Franklin of the MLA, Gesa Kirsch and Michael Greer of NCTE, John Hayes, Thomas Kent, Peter Mortensen, James Porter, Peter Smagorinsky, Tracey Sobel-Hill, Michael Spooner, Todd Taylor, and Stephen Witte. Our hope is that we may come out of this session with a better sense of what kinds of policies concerning person-based research might be appropriate for composition studies, and of how we might try to move towards putting such policies in place. We invite you to join us.

Forum in CCC

Since 1989, the Forum of the CCCC Committee on Part-Time Faculty has published incisive and useful writing on working conditions in composition. But while both well written and well edited (by William McCleary, of SUNY-Cortland, and Teresa Purvis, of Lansing Community College, and now a member of the CCC Editorial Board), the Forum has until now lacked the circulation and influence it deserves. I am thus pleased to announce that a new issue of the Forum appears in these pages, edited by Roberta Kirby-Werner of Syracuse University, and sponsored by the renamed Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Special Interest Group of CCCC. The Executive Committee of CCCC voted last year to support the efforts of the Non-Tenure-Track Faculty group through this collaboration, and it is my hope that the increased visibility of the Forum will help us all in thinking through the complex and daunting issues raised by the unfair working conditions that many of us face. Please read and consider contributing to the Forum.

Joseph Harris
University of Pittsburgh
February 1998

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