There are four types of presentations

• Individual paper presentation: 20-minute presentations followed by 10 minutes of discussion.

• Symposium: Features several scholars working on related questions. Duration: 90 minutes. These symposia can take two shapes: team symposia and symposia bringing together several scholars from different teams or countries. This second type of symposium is strongly encouraged as it makes the conference the site of intellectual exchange and collective work.

• Roundtable: Focuses on debates and commonalities. Duration: 90 minutes. The author of the proposal provides the theme and the topics that will be discussed during the roundtable.

• Poster presentations: May consist of completed or ongoing work. Posters should present a written summary, and will be displayed in a designated area.

Individual paper presentations, aswell as poster presentations

The abstract should contain

• A title indicating the topic and the field of work
• The research problem, question or objective of the study including a succinct description of the knowledge contribution of the current study
• The study design, which should include information about:
  • Participants or other data sources (e.g., corpuses)
  • Analytical strategies, including information on how data were collected and analyzed
• The most important results, achievements and limitations

Length, and ensuring a blind review

• Abstracts should not exceed 650 words (excluding references and tables)
• Abstracts should not contain names, affiliations or other information that may identify the author(s)

Abstracts longer than 650 words (excluding references and tables) and/or that are not blinded for review will not be considered.  

Symposia

Abstracts should contain

• A short overview statement (max. 300 words) indicating the objective of the symposium. The overview should indicate who will serve as chair of the symposia.
• Abstracts for individual presentations in the symposia should contain:
  • A title indicating the topic and the field of work
  • The research problem, question or objective of the study including a succinct description of the knowledge contribution of the current study
  • The study design, which should include information about:
    • Participants or other data sources (e.g., corpuses).
    • Analytical strategies, including information on how data were collected and analyzed.
    • The most important results, achievements and limitations.

Length, and ensuring a blind review

• The overview statement should be no longer than 300 words
• The proposals for individual presentations should not be longer than 650 words (excluding references and tables) per presentation
• The proposals (except the overview statement) should not contain names, affiliation or other information that may be used for identifying the author(s)

Proposals for individual presentations that are longer than 650 words (excluding references and tables) and/or that are not blinded for review will not be considered.

Roundtable

The abstracts should contain

• A short overview statement indicating the objective of the roundtable (e.g., debating the role of technology in writing assessment). The document should indicate who will serve as chair of the roundtable.
• Short descriptions (max. 200 words) of the positions of speakers invited to participate. The descriptions should indicate the view of the individual speaker.

Length, and ensuring a blind review

• The overview statement should be no longer than 300 words.
• The proposals for individual presentations should not be longer than 200 words (excluding references and tables) per presentation.
• The proposals (except the overview statement) should not contain names, home institutions or other information that may be used for identifying the author(s).

Proposals for individual presentations that are longer than 200 words (excluding references and tables) and/or that are not blinded for review will not be considered.

Submission guidelines

While the working language of the conference is English, ISAWR and the conference organizers recognize the critical importance of linguistic diversity, the value of scholarship across languages, and the importance of understanding writing in all languages across geographies and contexts.

To this end, we encourage the use of data, cases, and examples in all languages. Similarly, oral presentations can be in any language as long as presenters make sure that English speakers are able to follow the conversation (e.g., written slides in English, code-switching and translanguaging; translated handouts; live captioning; etc.) 

Furthermore, the conference organizers welcome submissions of abstracts in all languages as long as abstracts are accompanied by English translations. In all cases, efforts will be made to have the abstract read and reviewed in its original language. 

If you will be translating your abstract into English from another language, there are many good translation tools* that are useful to all scholars. We note that any variety of English is welcome: The principle should be to try to be sure the abstract is as understandable as possible for reviewers to assess the value of the proposal.

To that end, if there is a language-specific term or concept that does not have a direct translation, please explain it as clearly as possible in your abstract or as a footnote. Similarly, avoid acronyms and taken-for-granted contextual features (institutional, for example, or region-specific). We note that this is important for any abstract; reviewers of proposals can come from a variety of institutions and contexts, and authors should be careful to clarify context-specific terms or concepts.

Prior to the conference, we will also be providing guidance about ways for all presenters to make their presentations more accessible conceptually as they come from different traditions across different contexts.

Languages for the Call for paper

In support of linguistic diversity, the conference organizers will encourage the translation of the CFP into as many languages as possible, and these translations will be posted on the ISAWR.org website.

Language Policy for Conference Presentations

Plenary Sessions

If needed, all plenary sessions will be interpreted into English. Other languages will be considered and accommodated as needed, based on registration information.

Concurrent Sessions

As noted, the working language of the conference is English. Therefore, all individual and panel presentations must either A) be delivered in English or B) be delivered in the presenter’s preferred language with accommodations for listeners in English (i.e., the presenter needs to provide detailed slides and/or handouts or interpreters in English).

Poster Sessions

Presenters are welcome to create and present multilingual posters, as long as the posters are accessible to English speakers.

Linguistic Diversity Forum at WRAB VI

During the conference, ISAWR will host a special lunch session focused on exploring and discussing issues related to linguistic diversity, the mission of ISAWR, and future WRAB conferences.

*Some digital sites offering automated translation services. WRAB 2023, NTNU or ISAWR are note responsible for any of this sites:

https://translate.google.ca/
https://blog.gengo.com/10-online-translation-tools-translators/
https://opensource.com/article/17/6/open-source-localization-tools
https://www.deepl.com/translator
https://www.freetranslations.org/