CCCC has developed position statements on a variety of education issues vital to the teaching and learning of writing. Characteristically, a position statement is a short summary of what is currently known about an issue and the organizational beliefs about that issue. Generally, in addition, the statements include the history and background of the issue, the exigency for the statement, supporting information, and a short reference list. Statements also often include implied suggestions for putting recommendations to practice.
Position statements result from the work of a CCCC Executive Committee- commissioned task force that researches a proposed issue, drafts and revises a position statement, and presents the revised position statement to the Executive Committee for its approval in order to represent the organization at large.
Because policy statements are documents of the entire CCCC organization, they cannot be originated by one individual. CCCC member groups who have an issue about which they would like to propose a statement should first check with the CCCC Chair or Administrative Liaison for suggestions, support, and information about whether the issue is already addressed elsewhere (NCTE position statements, for example).
Issues that are addressed by position statements come to the forefront of CCCC concern in a variety of ways:
- A position can stem from a resolution or sense of the house motion passed at an Annual Business Meeting.
- A position could be the result of a Strategic Governance motion passed by the CCCC EC (i.e. they’ve researched an issue for a year and decided CCCC’s best course of action is a position statement on that issue).
- A position could come out of an already existing committee that suggests the need for a statement to the CCCC EC.
- A position could be written if there is a feeling among the Officers and/or the EC that there is some exigency for such a statement. An example of this is the Statement on the Multiple Uses of Writing. Sometimes the exigency is presented to an Officer or EC member by a CCCC member, an NCTE staff member, or simply through the natural course of information sharing within the organization.
