MISSION STATEMENT

Purpose

SLW News provides a forum for the exchange of views, research, and pedagogical practices related to second language writing. This forum creates opportunities for interest section members to advocate for students and other members, to disseminate and promote research on second language writing, and to encourage and support the teaching of writing to ESOL students at all levels.

Audience

SLW News is oriented to teachers, teacher-researchers, administrators, and writing specialists from across all nations, institutions, and grade levels, including traditionally underrepresented contexts (Pre-K through 12, two-year colleges, community programs, international K-12 schools, etc.). 

Vision

The ultimate vision for the newsletter is inclusiveness, given the breadth and depth of the constituents served. SLW News strives to achieve a balance in the following areas:

• articles, brief reports, and announcements that address the concerns of those working in all educational settings
• coverage of issues of concern to the various constituent audiences based on experience level and area of expertise or interest
• theoretical and practical information about second language writing, teaching, research and administration

  Call for Submissions

Second Language Writing Interest Section Newsletter
Volume 4.1

SLW News is soliciting articles on second language writing theory, research, and pedagogy in all ESL/EFL settings. SLW News welcomes articles that focus on L2 writer and characteristics and text features, classroom materials and practices, placement and assessment issues, writing program administration, teacher development, and other related areas. SLW News encourages submissions related to any educational setting, especially traditionally underrepresented contexts (Pre-K through 12, two-year colleges, community programs, international K-12 schools, etc.). Given the newsletter's electronic format, authors are encouraged to include hyperlinks.

Submission Guidelines

Articles should

• be no longer than 1,500 words
• include a 50-word (500 characters or less) abstract and 2-3 sentence author biography
• contain no more than five citations
• follow the style guidelines in Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition (APA)
• be in MS Word (.doc(x)) or rich text (.rtf) format

Deadlines

• August/September Issue: June 30
• February Issue: December 31

Please direct your submissions and questions to

Margi Wald, SLW News Co-editor
College Writing Programs
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-2500 USA
E-mail mwald@berkeley.edu
Tel. +1 510.642.2652
Fax +1 510.642.6963

CALL Column Information

If you are interested in submitting a CALL-related item, please contact Catherine Smith, SLW News CALL Column Editor, at catherinesmith@troy.edu.

Book Review Policy

SLW News welcomes reviews of teacher resource books and student texts dealing with second language writing, teaching, research, and administration. Anyone interested in writing a review for SLW News may choose a recent book in the field and contact the editor for approval and review copies. Reviews will be considered for publication based on the quality of the reviewer's evaluation and description of the book, and the book's relevance and importance to the field.

Reviews should

• be in APA format
• be 600-900 words in length
• include a 50-word (500 character or less) abstract and 2-3 sentence author biography

Further information and book review suggestions are available from Steven Bookman and Sharon Whitehead Loben Sels, Book Review Co-editors, atsteven.bookman@lehman.cuny.edu and sharonwhitehead@sbcglobal.net respectively.

Call for Column Editors

Context Column Editors
Given SLW News' goal of encouraging submissions related to a variety of educational settings, especially traditionally underrepresented contexts, we are seeking editors for our Context Column to ensure strong, broad coverage. Ideally, we will have several editors for this column, each of whom would represent a particular educational level or context. Possible contexts include, but are not limited to, elementary, secondary, 2-year or community colleges, community programs, professional institutes, and workplace programs; both ESL and EFL contexts should be represented.  Editors will solicit articles of relevance to people working in the chosen context and coordinate with the SLW News editors to ready articles for publication. If interested, please note the context you would like to represent.

Research Forum Editor
The goal of this column is to provide a venue for researchers to share research questions, preliminary results, and areas of interest and for members to keep abreast of current research in the field. The research forum editor will compile a list of brief reports on recently completed or in-progress research projects by SLWIS members. This editor will also compile summaries of conferences and presentations on L2 writing outside TESOL. Furthermore, this editor will solicit reports and summaries from SLWIS members, as well as choose a format and a system of categorization for reports.

Candidates must be members of TESOL and SLWIS (primary or secondary). If you are interested or have questions, please contact Margi Wald, SLW NewsCo-editor, at mwald@berkeley.edu.