-Society and History: Scholars in writing studies (just as in any academic field) argue to and against one another in scholarly journals, books, and conference talks, those forms of knowledge-making don’t consistently find their way into the public’s understanding of writing.
-Audience: Readers of Bad Ideas About Writing.
-Speaker: Scholars, intellectuals, and artists; writing scholar-teachers; authors in the Bad Ideas collection (Edge.org).
-Message: Public deserves clearly articulated and well-researched arguments about what is not working, what must die, and what is blocking progress in current understandings of writing.
-Purpose: To spark arguments about provocative ideas to be published online and collected into print volumes intended for a general public audience; major myths about writing instruction—written by experts for the educated public—that could collectively spark debate and have us rethink our pieties and myths; to translate specialized knowledge and experiences about writing.
-Context: The beginning of 1998; West Virginia University Library; after 2015 Conference on College Composition and Communication.