Conference on College Composition and Communication


The Conference on College Composition and Communication is a national professional association of college and university writing instructors in the United States. The CCCC formed in 1949 as a conference of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). CCCC is the largest organization dedicated to writing research, theory, and teaching worldwide.

Publications

The CCCC currently publishes the following journals: College Composition and Communication, College Composition and Communication Online, the Studies in Writing and Rhetoric Series, and FORUM: Issues About Part-Time and Contingent Faculty. Previously, the CCCC also published Bibliography of Composition and Rhetoric, from 1984 to 1999.
College Composition and Communication is a quarterly journal that seeks to promote scholarship, research, and the teaching of writing at the collegiate level. Back issues can be accessed through the CCCC website. The CCCC also publishes the College Composition and Communication Online journal, which focuses on Web-based text and digital research, and their website offers the CCC Online Archive, a tool that can be used to search the CCC.
The CCCC co-publishes the Studies in Writing and Rhetoric '''' book series with WAC Clearinghouse, which focuses on researching the history of teaching and studying writing and rhetoric, as well as highlighting the diversity of the members involved in these communities.
FORUM: Issues About Part-Time and Contingent Faculty is published twice a year and can be found in CCC and Teaching English in the Two-Year College . Publishing about the realities and perspectives of professionals involved in the field of college composition is the journal's focus.
From 1984 to 1999, the CCCC published Bibliography of Composition and Rhetoric. An archive to its content is linked to by the CCCC website and hosted on ibiblio.

Conferences

Annual convention

CCCC holds an annual convention, which usually has over 3000 members in attendance. The location of the convention and convention chair changes from year to year. The convention is primarily made up of scholarly panels, featured speakers, committee meetings, special interest group meetings, and workshops. An additional part of the convention is the Research Network Forum -- a round-table venue where novice and experienced researchers gather to present works-in-progress, discuss methodologies, and share possible future projects—which has been called the "unofficial mentoring arm of CCCC." While Research Network Forum invites all researchers in Composition/Rhetoric/Writing Studies to submit a proposal, the Qualitative Research Network focuses only qualitative research. In addition, the opening meeting of the convention usually features the CCCC Chair's Address, during which the convention chair addresses the entire assembly of participants, often articulating a vision of the field of rhetoric and composition.

Awards

The convention is also the time when CCCC presents several yearly awards, including the , , , , the Stonewall Service Award, the , , , in addition to several others, including a variety of awards supporting travel to the conference.

Prior conventions

Future conventions

2026 conference

To be held March 4 - 7, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Conference theme shall be "Conference and Our Conversations," and the Program Chair is Melissa Ianetta.

2027 conference

To be held April 14–17, 2027 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Mission

The organization has the four following aims:
  1. sponsoring meetings and publishing scholarly materials for the exchange of knowledge about composition, composition pedagogy, and rhetoric
  2. supporting a wide range of research on composition, communication, and rhetoric by individuals of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds
  3. working to enhance the conditions for learning and teaching college composition and to promote professional development
  4. acting as an advocate for the advancement of a holistic understanding of language and literacy education

    Position statements

CCCC has published a number of position statements on writing, teaching of writing, and related issues. Emerging from committees within CCCC, the position statements seek to promote the CCCC goals and encourage best practices in writing pedagogy, language practices, research, literacy, professional development, and working conditions. CCCC position statements fall under the following six categories: "Statements on Teaching and Learning in Postsecondary Language and Literacy Classrooms," "Statements on Social and Linguistic Justice and Antiracist Pedagogies," "Professional Standards and Resources: Research," "Professional Standards and Resources: Teaching and Learning," "Professional Standards and Resources: Working Conditions," and "Statements on Current Issues."
Recent statements include:
The permanent CCCC executive committee oversees a number of temporarily constituted special interest committees. These committees are constituted for a 3-year period, after which the executive committee can reconstitute the committee for another term.

Initiatives

The organization sponsors the CCCC Research Initiative, which provides funds to researchers working on datasets collected by the organization and its affiliates. Begun in 2004, the grant has provided means for various research projects, including the "Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy—What We Know, What We Need to Know" project that ran from 2004 to 2007. In addition to providing grant support to individual and collective projects and promoting inter-institutional collaboration, the project is designed to "create a sustained research initiative to advance scholarship in composition and rhetoric".
CCCC, along with its parent organization, the National Council of Teachers of English, sponsors a number of initiatives on writing, including the National Day on Writing held annually on October 20, as well as the CCCC Wikipedia Initiative, which focuses on expanding Wikipedia's coverage of topics related to writing research and pedagogy, verifying that article content is based on reliable secondary sources, and revising and editing writing studies to improve their overall quality.