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Welcome!
Suggestions for Research Network Forum Participants

As the chair of the Research Network Forum, I'd like to give some pointers about presenting at the RNF. We are a friendly group and the work-in-progress [WIP] presentations given are more informal that a panel presentation at CCCC.

Do NOT plan to read a paper. First, you won't have time. The Works-in-Progress are small tables of 4-6 presenters with 1 or 2 discussion leaders. The time is divided equally among the presenters so you have about 6-8 minutes to present your research, including any questions you want answered on your project (what to read, who to talk to, where to send for publication once finished, how "marketable" is this research, how to change a disseration into a book or series of articles, etc.) Then you'll have about 7-8 minutes for the round table to give you feedback.

You should prepare a handout with your name, contact info (email/phone/snail mail), a brief abstract of your project, and a list of your questions so that if someone thinks of something after your presentation, s/he can get the information to you later. This also allows you to network (our middle name).

To further network, it's a great investment to have business cards printed (even if you're a grad student). You can generally have them printed at your university print shop or Office Depot/Staples for under $30 for 500+ cards, so you may want to take the time to do that (get a business card from someone at your school first so you have the same layout as the univ/college). If you're a grad student, you should list if you're a Graduate Teaching Assistant or Instructor or Ph.D. Candidate or whatever. Make sure your email and phone # are on the business cards, in addition to a snail mail address.

Works-in-Progress will be presented at small round tables in a big conference room. Overhead projectors won't work in this arena. Have handouts (15 copies should be fine for the day, as we have a morning and an afternoon session so you'll present your WIP twice to two different groups of people). Handouts should be easy to read as well. I generally print my handouts on color stock so that they stand out from all the white paper out there but you can use black/white as well.

If you have any specific questions about RNF, I'd be happy to answer them. We think we're a great introduction to CCCC and look forward to working with more than 150 work-in-progress presenters, discussion leaders, and editors--in addition to our fantastic plenaries--on Wed., March 16!

Best wishes, Risa Gorelick

About the Research Network Forum

Welcome to the Research Network Forum. Founded in 1987 by Charles Bazerman and others as a pre-convention workshop, the RNF is an opportunity for published researchers, new researchers, and graduate students to discuss their current research projects and receive responses from new and senior researchers. The forum is free to convention participants, and you need not be a work-in-progress presenter to attend.

As in past years, the 2005 RNF will feature two plenary sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, each a little over an hour long. These sessions include 12-15 minute presentations from each plenary speaker followed by a brief question period. At the subsequent roundtable discussions, work-in-progress presenters discuss their current projects (in an eight-minute presentation) and gain the responses of other researchers, including the discussion leader.

Work-in-progress presenters are grouped by thematic clusters, in which they will discuss their projects with other researchers and a discussion leader who is a senior researcher, often a plenary speaker. Participants include editors of printed and electronic journals of composition/rhetoric, literature, textual/ literary criticism, and pedagogies, as well as experts in Internet and cyberspace concerns. Selected abstracts of presentations will be published by participating journals (and all the [edited] abstracts) will also be published in a complete text. Presenters should bring three typed questions which they should xerox and distribute to participants at their table (15 copies for the two sessions will do). (Plenary speakers and discussion leaders will stay for the two sessions unless otherwise arranged.)

We encourage participants to bring a copy of the journals they edit/publish, any other publications, and announcements, which will be displayed at the RNF meeting.