The CWRL (er, DWRL) gets a facelift

The Blogora: The Rhetoric Society of America

Submitted by Jim Brown on October 14, 2009 - 11:29am

The Digital Writing and Research Lab at the University of Texas (formerly known as the CWRL and also the entity that so graciously provides server space for The Blogora) has gotten a wonderful facelift. Check out the new website and also check out the new version of Blogging Pedagogy.

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i like the new name

Submitted by johnm on October 14, 2009 - 11:44am.

I think DWRL has a better ring to it than CWRL. Was this change made to bring increased attention to other forms of new media writing like SMS, flash mob organizing, etc? I think it's interesting when organizations change their names to reflect changing times -- like how Speech became Speech Communication which in turn became Communication or Communication Studies, and now in some places is Communication and Cultural Studies. Does "Digital Writing" represent a move away from thinking of the home computer as the primary means of writing digitally?

yes.

Submitted by Jim Brown on October 14, 2009 - 5:30pm.

The CWRL was created at a time when some folks in the English department at UT began playing around with computers and networks. My sense is that, at the time, the "computer" was thought of as the new, revolutionary writing tool. Since then, it's become clear that there's a broader set of tools and technologies and networks that are in need of study. This is also why UT's English department changed it's Computers and English concentration to Digital Literacies and Literatures last year.