CCCC 2001 in Review: Haphazard Conversation with Next Year's Chair

After the last session of the conference, I had very little time to get a cab to the airport, but there stood Kathleen Blake Yancey, next year's conference chair. She had emailed me just before the conference with the subject header "hey" and asked if I was transcribing sessions? I replied, explaining that I was reviewing sessions, and included the appropriate url for Academic.Writing. I wasn't able to check my email since leaving for Chicago and was glad to talk instead of write to Kathi because I hoped there might be a way to link A.W's conference reviews to the 4Cs site. I reasoned that presenters should know how to find reviews of their sessions but she was concerned because of the lack of control. Yancey was concerned that graduate students, for example, might not deserve the same type of critical scrutiny as other professionals. She remembered the review I gave of her last 4Cs session as very positive, but I made it clear that our team of reviewers were encouraged to express their opinions and not constrained in any way beyond our peer review process which centers on being interesting and critically adept, not on being kind and nurturing. We couldn't come to a conclusion as I walked with her on her way to another meeting. She did, however, agree to think about my request and I will follow up with more email and of course, next year's review. [WH]

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