Writers Who Care began five years ago as a way to bring teachers, parents, and professors together to support the teaching of writing in our schools. English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), a group that is part of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), believed that everyone should share in knowledge about the teaching of writing.
Our very first post, Carpe Diem in the Public Sphere, by Peter Smagorinsky, was published September 16, 2013. In it, Smagorinsky notes the importance of public forums, where no subscription is necessary and conversations can be shared among all those who have a stake in writing education. The blog was chosen as a publication format in hopes that research in the teaching of writing could be available to all.
In the past five years, we have published 117 posts on topics ranging from writing process, genres, purpose, revision and editing to voice, culture, and identity. Some of our most popular posts include:
- Is Your Child Getting a Good Writing Education? Four Questions to Ask Your Child by Ken Lindblom
- Does Bad “Grammar” Instruction Make Writing Worse? by Patricia A. Dunn
- School Writing vs. Authentic Writing by Ken Lindblom
- What Do Students Think About the Five-Paragraph Essay? by Jennifer P. Gray
- What the Data Won’t Show by Susan Lazear
- Studying Reasons Writers Write: Purpose Studies in the Writing Classroom by Charlotte L. Land
- Uncertainty as an Opportunity by Jim Fredricksen
- The Problem with Graphic Organizers by Anny Fritzen Case
- Narrative Writing: The Orphan Child of the Common Core by Rob Montgomery
- Proposed Regulations Bad for Kids, Teachers, and Schools by Anne Elrod Whitney
Our readership has reached over 110,000 readers around the globe, including the United States, Australia, Canada, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Pakistan, South Africa, and Malaysia.
Three years ago, our blog moved into a peer review, and we especially appreciate the many reviewers who have given their time to help writers revise and edit for our wide readership.
The peer review process and dedication of ELATE members has allowed us to publish high quality and informative pieces, like The Role of Family in Young Writers’ Lives. In it, the authors explore how family members can become a source of inspiration for many of our student writers. They show us how, as teachers, we can tap into that by allowing our students to write in diverse genres, such as memoirs and letters. When our students are able to write about themselves and the people that matter to them, it fosters culturally relevant components of teaching. This short, research-based piece allows readers to get a glimpse into one high school classroom and learn from the teacher and students in it.
We are proud that the blog can serve to provide accessible research and quality teaching ideas to so many, and we look forward to reading and publishing more of your work! It is through this blog that we are able to spread positive and informative narratives about teaching, as well as the many ways educators across the country are working to provide authentic writing opportunities for students.
Interested in writing for our blog? We invite your thoughtful submissions about writing practice, pedagogy, and research for parents, teachers, and profs. Interested in joining our review team? Send us an email at writerswhocare@gmail.com. As we celebrate five years of Writers Who Care, we look forward to many more.
Writers Who Care 
It has been such a pleasure reading and writing for the “Writers Who Care” blog! 110,000 thousand readers is quite an accomplishment! Congratulations and thank you to all the editors for their dedicated and thoughtful work over the past 5 years. It was a great idea and it’s going great. I look forward to more excellent posts!
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