Contact the Editor
EMAIL: Jonathan Alexander, Editor, CCC, ccceditors@gmail.com
MAIL: Jonathan Alexander, Editor, College Composition and Communication, University of California, Irvine, 435 Humanities Instructional Building, Irvine, CA 92697-2650
CCC Submission Guidelines
The editorial staff of College Composition and Communication (CCC) invites submission of research and scholarship in composition studies that supports college teachers in reflecting on and improving their practices in teaching writing. The field of composition studies draws on research and theories from a broad range of humanistic disciplines— English studies, linguistics, literacy studies, rhetoric, cultural studies, LGBT studies, gender studies, critical theory, education, technology studies, race studies, communication, philosophy of language, anthropology, sociology, and others—and within composition studies, a number of subfields have also developed, such as technical communication, computers and composition, writing across the curriculum, research practices, history of composition, assessment, and writing center work.
Articles for CCC may come out of the discussions within and among any of these fields, as long as the argument presented is clearly relevant to the work of college writing teachers and responsive to recent scholarship in composition studies. The usefulness of articles to writing teachers should be apparent in the discussion, but articles need not contain explicit sections detailing applications to teaching practices.
In writing for CCC, you should consider a diverse readership for your article, a readership that includes at least all teachers of college-level writing at diverse institutions and literacy centers, and may include administrators, undergraduate and graduate students, legislators, corporate employers, parents, and alumni. To address such an audience, you need not avoid difficult theories or complex discussions of research and issues or detailed discussions of pedagogy; rather you should consider the interests and perspectives of the variety of readers who are affected by your theories, pedagogies, and policies.
Genre, Format, Length, Documentation. You are encouraged to submit articles in whatever genre and format best fits your purposes, and to use alternate genres and formats if they best express your meanings; similarly, the use of endnotes and subheadings should align with your purposes and meanings. Most articles in CCC run between 4,000 and 7,000 words (or approximately 16–28 double-spaced pages), though articles may be shorter or longer in line with your purposes. Submissions should follow the current (8th) edition of the MLA Handbook. NCTE’s Guidelines for Gender-Fair Use of Language can be found here: http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/genderfairuseoflang.
Research Practices and Citing Unpublished Work. If your article reports the results of empirical or observational research, you need to be attentive to the ethics as well as the validity of your research methods. Before submitting your work for consideration, please be aware that, if you use, quote, or otherwise reproduce unpublished writing by students or teachers or others, you should either have clearance from your local IRB or permission in writing from the writers to do so, even if you use their writing anonymously. Click HERE to read/download a copy of the CCC permission form needed to include the work of others in your submission (especially student work).
Submission and Review of Articles. All manuscripts should be submitted electronically. Please register as an author at our Web-based manuscript submission and review system, Editorial Manager (https://www.editorialmanager.com/cccj). Once logged in to the system, follow the instructions to upload your submission. If you’re submitting work for a special issue, be sure to indicate in the comments section the issue date for which you are submitting (e.g., June 2020 issue). Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged by email. Articles will be read blind by outside reviewers, so please make sure that your submission is sufficiently anonymized. Your name should not appear on the title page or first page and you should not identify yourself in the text or in the list of works cited. Direct questions to editor Jonathan Alexander at ccceditors@gmail.com.
Interchanges. Responses to articles that raise important issues or different perspectives will be considered for publication in the Interchanges section. Please phrase any differences with the article you are responding to in a tone respectful to the writer and to the profession. Responses usually run between 500 and 2,000 words (approximately 2–8 double-spaced pages). Sets of short related articles may also be submitted to or solicited by the editor for the Interchanges section.
Book Reviews. CCC is currently publishing book review essays, each addressing a set of 3-5 books, and all review essays are invited by the editor. If you have ideas for review essays, please contact the editor.
