Johnny Can’t Write? Are You Sure?
Understanding Public Perceptions of Our Work

The National Conversation on Writing (NCoW) believes that public discussions of writing and writers too often focus on stories that hype “Johnny Can’t Write.” 

The public discussion of writing affects us as literacy educators, since it affects how writing is taught in schools, how writing is assessed, how it is funded, and how those writers we work with think about writing. 

And ultimately that affects who is included in—and who is excluded from—the discourse of American democracy. 

We also know this: As teachers and students, we should be at the heart of national conversations on writing.

By promoting public, ongoing conversations about writing, advocating for what we believe about writing, celebrating 21st century literacies, and insisting that “Everyone is a Writer,” NCoW hopes to change the headlines of the national conversation and tell a new story about writing.

To help introduce you to the National Conversation on Writing and, we hope, to encourage you to use NCoW and to contribute, we present our opening campaign.

Campaign Overview: "Their Story" and "Our Story"

• Audio: "Who Said Johnny Can't Write?" features author Stephanie Roach from the University of Michigan-Flint analyzing the influential 1975 Newsweek article and its effects on the ways we talk about writing.
• Video: produced by the Center for Converging Literacies at Texas A&M-Commerce (CLiC) adds a compelling visual perspective to Dr. Roach's narration.
• Text: full text of the audio discussion of historical context.

Assignments and Examples of Student Writing: See how teachers have engaged students in the conversation about writing. And see howmany ways examples of writing demonstrate that "Everyone is a Writer."

Bibliography for Further Reading: Literacy Crises Biography by Rebecca Moore Howard provides some references for further investigation of "their story" (click "Literacy Crises" Bibliography).

Resource to Start your Own Research: using CompPile, see more of what the field has been saying.