Written Communication
Written Communication
Since 1984, Written Communication has been a leading journal for empirical research on writing as both systems of inscriptions and activities of meaning-making across multiple modes and contexts. Written Communication sponsors a broad and interdisciplinary view of what writing is, how writing gets done, and what writing does in the world. Each issue of the journal encompasses a wide range of topics and its pages consistently provide readers with new research findings, new theoretical concepts, and new ways of understanding how writing is practiced. Written Communication welcomes studies of writing practices in and across pursuits, international borders, and cultures, and at all levels of scope.
Written Communication is an international journal that publishes methodological inquiry and empirical research on writing from multiple theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, including literacy studies, semiotics, anthropology, education, history, journalism, linguistics, measurement, psychology, and rhetoric.
Topics of continuing interest include:
Any manuscript that engages with and contributes to ongoing conversations in and around writing studies is welcome for consideration.
Theoretical and applied contributions of articles in Written Communication are made explicit and are relevant to researchers and teachers from a range of scholarly disciplines. Published articles will collectively represent a wide range of methodologies, but the method for each study must be handled expertly. Written Communication is an English-medium journal, although we are open to research conducted on any writers or any writing system.
| Dylan Dryer | University of Maine, USA |
| Mya Poe | Northeastern University |
| Tieanna Graphenreed | Northeastern University, USA |
| Maryam Khan | University of Maine, USA |
| Roshny Maria Roy | Northeastern University, USA |
| Rui Alexandre Alves | University of Porto, Portugal |
| Chris Anson | North Carolina State University, USA |
| Natasha Artemeva | Carleton University, Canada |
| Charles Bazerman | University of California, Santa Barbara, USA |
| Davida Charney | The University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Ellen Cushman | Northeastern University, USA |
| Susan De La Paz | University of Maryland, College Park, USA |
| Huiling Ding | North Carolina State University, USA |
| Christiane Donahue | Dartmouth College, USA |
| John Duffy | University of Notre Dame, USA |
| Patricia Dunmire | Kent State University, USA |
| Anne Haas Dyson | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Tisha Lewis Ellison | University of Georgia, USA |
| Kerry Enright | University of California at Davis, USA |
| Steven Fraiberg | Michigan State University, USA |
| Joachim Grabowski | University of Hannover, Germany |
| S. Scott Graham | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| David Hanauer | Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA |
| Bill Hart-Davidson | Michigan State University, USA |
| Nigel Harwood | University of Sheffield, UK |
| John R. Hayes | Carnegie Mellon University, USA |
| Rosalind Horowitz | The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA |
| Brian Huot | Kent State University, USA |
| Catherine Kell | University of Cape Town, South Africa |
| Theresa Lillis | The Open University, UK |
| Cati V. de los Ríos | University of California, Berkeley |
| Paul Kei Matsuda | Arizona State University |
| Sarah McCarthey | University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA |
| Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher | University of Waterloo, Canada |
| Kathy A. Mills | Australian Catholic University |
| Federico Navarro | O’Higgins University, Chile, USA |
| John Oddo | Carnegie Mellon University, USA |
| Lynda Olman | University of Nevada, Reno, USA |
| Stacey Pigg | North Carolina State University, USA |
| Paul Prior | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Patrick Proctor | Boston College, USA |
| Jason Ranker | Portland State University, USA |
| Thomas Reynolds | University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA |
| Gert Rijlaarsdam | University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Derek Ross | Auburn University, USA |
| Blake Scott | University of Central Florida, USA |
| Stefan Slembrouck | University of Gent, Belgium |
| Clay Spinuzzi | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Amy Stornaiuolo | University of Pennsylvania, USA |
| Jason Swarts | North Carolina State University, USA |
| Christine Tardy | University of Arizona, USA |
| Christa Teston | The Ohio State University, USA |
| Zoi Traga-Philippakos | University of Tennessee, USA |
| David Wallace | California State University, Long Beach, USA |
| Åsa Wengelin | Gothenburg University, Sweden |
| Maisha T. Winn | University of California, Davis, USA |
| Christopher Wolfe | Department of Psychology, Miami University, USA |
| Joanna Wolfe | Carnegie Mellon University, USA |
| Youngjoo Yi | The Ohio State University, USA |
| Xiaoye You | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
Editorial Policy Statement: Written Communication is an international multidisciplinary journal that publishes original research and theory in writing.
Authors and readers come from fields including anthropology, education, English, literacy, psychology, rhetoric, sociolinguistics, and writing studies.
Among topics of interest are the nature of writing ability; the assessment of writing; literacy learning and writing development; the interaction of writing with other technologies; the nature of writing in digital spaces; the social and political nature of writing and writing instruction; writing in workplaces and communities; literacy practices and multiple literacies; embodied and material practices of literacy; relationships between knowledge and writing; written genre; the nature of writing in disciplinary and professional domains; cognition and writing; the structure, function, and impact of written text; relationships among age, class, gender, race, and sexual orientation and writing; and connections among the verbal, visual, aural, tactile, and material conditions of writing.
Articles published in Written Communication will collectively represent a wide range of methodologies, but the methodology of each study must be handled expertly and articulated clearly. Theoretical and applied contributions must be made explicit and relevant to researchers, theorists, and educators from a range of scholarly disciplines.
Guidelines for Submission: Prospective authors are strongly urged to acquaint themselves with previously published issues of the journal.
Please include a cover letter including:
• the title of the submission;
• author names(s), institutional affiliations(s), email address(es), and 2- to 3-sentence biographical statements for each author;
• a statement that the work reported has not been previously published, that the piece - in present or revised form - is not being considered for publication in other venues, and that the author(s) will not allow the manuscript to be so considered before notification in writing of an editorial decision by Written Communication;
• a statement that if research data are collected from human subjects, such data must be collected in accordance with the standards and guidelines of the human subjects review board (or equivalent body) at the author’s or authors’ home institution. Indicate compliance with human subjects guidelines both in your cover letter and in the manuscript itself.
Manuscripts must:
• include an abstract of 100-150 words and 5-7 keywords (which do not appear in the title) to facilitate electronic search.
• follow the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition) and should not exceed 10,000 words (including all appendices, tables, and references). Manuscripts that do not use APA style and conventions or manuscripts that far exceed the 10,000-word maximum may be turned back without review.
• not include identifying information about the author in the text or file properties.
• use 8.5" x 11" size paper and be double-spaced, including the abstract, block quotations, tables, figures, notes, and references. Tables and figures should be placed in appropriate locations within the text, not in additional files.
For all submissions: manuscripts should be submitted electronically at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wc. In order to submit a manuscript, the corresponding author must create an account in the online system. Inquiries and correspondence concerning manuscripts under submission should be directed to the editorial office (wcxeditors@gmail.com).
Reminder: all documents and files should be submitted as Word documents (.doc or .docx) and free of information about authors and their institutions.
Written Communication seeks to promote respect and dignity in the process of scholarly review and publication and is committed to enacting inclusive language practices at all levels of operation. WC's editorial staff recognizes the scope of this commitment and thus the need for ongoing education and active engagement on the part of editors, authors, and reviewers. Toward these ends, the journal works with our publisher, Sage, to cultivate diversity, equity, and inclusion in our publishing community; it participates in coalitions with other stakteholders in the field of Writing Studies; and supports APA guidelines for "Bias-Free Language" both for article submissions and the review process more generally.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
For more information, please refer to the Sage Manuscript Submission Guidelines.