Proposal Writing

Happy New Year to you all!

Nagoya Symposium is coming up in about 9 1/2 months, and the deadline for proposals--January 31, 2007, is fast approaching. I'm glad to report that a good number of people have submitted their proposals, but given the general tendencies, many people will likely wait until the last few weeks of January to submit their proposals.

Even writing teachers and researchers are subject to procrastination, I guess.

I'm hoping to see a good representation of regulars--people who have participated in past symposia. But I'm also looking forward to receiving many proposals from new people--people who have not been able to attend previous syposia.

Some of them may have been unable to participate because of the location or timing. Others may have become interested in L2 writing only recently.

I also have heard from a few people that they thought--or they had been told--their study was not worth presenting at an international forum. No, not in terms of the quality of research or the methodological rigor, but in terms of their generalizability. They are not sure if the particular population of students they are working with or the institutional context is generalizable to other countries.

Well, if that's the concern, that's all the more reason to get it out there. People from certain dominant countries (e.g., U.K. and U.S.) publish their studies in international forums all the time--often without thinking about their implications for other countries. (I'm not saying this is good, but that's the way it has long been in some fields.)

What is important, however, is the effort to use the studies from unique situations by relating to the existing generalizations and abstractions (i.e., theories) that came from those dominant contexts. If you believe the context is different from those dominant countries, use the study to document what the differences are in a more concrete terms. Are the differences real and significant enough to matter? If so, how can that context challenge, endorse, or shed light on the existing insights?

A conference presentation is a step before publication where this kind of discussion can take place because there will be people who represent various contexts. Even if you can't see what is (or isn't) particularly unique about your own context, you might be able to find out by sharing your work with others who can point out what's interesting and unique about your work.

I hope this year's Symposium will provide an opportunity to many presenters and participants to think through these issues.