Roundtable Submissions

Submissions Deadline

The submissions deadline has passed.

Guidelines

Eligible Members may propose roundtables on suggested topics or topics of general interest to both the discipline and the Society. Roundtables (formerly called panels) should last 75 minutes in length, including Q & A. Roundtables are not a vehicle for the reading of papers. Instead roundtables are designed to promote discussion and exploration of a selected topic, with an emphasis on active engagement of the audience. Successful proposals will indicate not only the role of the roundtable participants but also how they will engage the audience in active dialogue. Faculty may be moderators or participants in a roundtable, though the proposed roundtable would ideally include at least one student participant. Read rules: What Individuals Can Submit.

Competition for the limited number of roundtable slots will be lively. Only those roundtables that actively engage the audience in dialogue will be considered. New this year: while judges will read and consider multiple proposals from the same school, individual chapters are limited to two acceptances unless the proposals include members from more than one school. In addition, among equally persuasive proposals, priority will be given to those roundtables that include members from more than one chapter and/or that cover the convention theme of "River Current," the 90th Anniversary Theme, "1924," or the 2014 Common Reader.

Helpful Hint: If you have a great idea for a roundtable but don’t know any members at other chapters, contact your Regional Student Representative or Associate Student Representative who can help you use Society resources to connect with members in other chapters. You may also post requests for additional roundtable participants on the Sigma Tau Delta 2014 International Convention Facebook event page.

* Sigma Tau Delta members no longer affiliated with a college or university chapter must be members of the Sigma Tau Delta Alumni Epsilon Chapter to present at the convention.

Topics

Document Format

Create a Word document using your title as the file name and save the file as a .doc or .docx. Your document must contain the following information:

Roundtable Moderator: List the name, school, and email address for the roundtable moderator. (The moderator must be a faculty or Alumni Epsilon member. You may also leave this blank and we will select a moderator for the panel.)
Roundtable Participants: List their name, school, and email address for each participant (maximum of 5 participants and minimum of 3 participants). Sometimes roundtable organizers are unable to provide a complete list of participants when submitting the proposal. The names of all participants (and any changes to the list of participants) must by sent to the convention chair by January 10, 2014.
The roundtable submission requires both a short abstract (50 words to be included in the convention program) and a longer description (up to 250 words or so) that explains how the roundtable is organized, how the roundtable will involve the audience in active discussion, and what makes this approach more appropriate for a roundtable discussion rather than for presentation in separate papers.

Instructions for Roundtable Submissions

Step 1: Sign In

The submission link is now closed.

Go to Account Set-Up for details on setting up your account, resetting your password, or changing your account profile information.

Step 2: Authors

After you have successfully logged on, choose: Submitter Account | Add As Author/Co-Author. Note: Sigma Tau Delta only allows one author.
Choose: Continue button.

Step 3: Add Submission

Topic: select your roundtable topic from the pull-down menu (note roundtable topics are listed below paper topics).
- Common Reader "We the Animals" or Convention Speakers
- Convention Theme "River Current"
- 90th Anniversary Theme "1924"
- Service/Literacy
- English Education/Young Adult Lit
- Popular Culture/Film
- Southern Writers and Southern Literary Landscapes
- English and Technology
- Composition/Rhetoric
- Member Recruitment/Chapter Development
Title: Type in the title of your document. Due to space constraints, any title of more than 50 characters may be abbreviated in the program. You are strongly encouraged to limit your own title accordingly.
Attach Document: Select your word document. FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY!

Label your Word document by the full title or an abbreviated title of no more than 50 characters.
Save your Word document file as a doc or docx on your computer's hard drive. Errors can occur if your file is uploaded from a server or external drive.
Click the Browse button to select your document.
Click the Attach button.
If your document is correctly attached, you will see your document file name listed below the document box.

Presentation Type: choose "Roundtable" from the drop-down list.
Insert Keywords (required): All submissions require three keywords. Keywords may be short phrases (e.g., "loss of innocence") but cannot include punctuation. Each keyword must be separated by a comma. Do not use your first or last name as a keyword. The total three-keyword character count must not exceed 100 characters (including commas and spaces).

Examples:
We the Animals, literacy, English education
Shakespeare, gender, loss of innocence

Type your keywords directly into the box. Do not cut and paste from other sources (including Microsoft Word and web pages); doing so will create formatting problems and a larger character count, and may result in your submission being rejected.

Notes: Keywords SHOULD NOT contain any punctuation including quotation marks, and keywords SHOULD NOT be copy and pasted. Instead, TYPE IN the keywords.
Other Information (required)
- Membership Type
- Chapter State
- Chapter School
- Academic Level
- Sponsor Name
  (If you are a Sponsor or an Alumni Epsilon member, type "N/A" in the field.)
- Sponsor Email Address
  (If you are a Sponsor or an Alumni Epsilon member, type "N/A" in the field.)
Verify the following statements:
"This is an original work authored by me."
"As instructed, the title of this submission is no more than 50 characters."
Answer the following:
"Would you like to be invited to serve as a session chair at the convention?" (If you reply Yes, you will receive an invitation email in late January.)
"Please indicate all dates on which you are unable to present for religious reasons." (Reply by selecting the date and then from pull-down menu Unable to Present.)

Step 4: Review and Save

Click Continue and review the information for your submission. You may make edits at this time (choose the Edit button). To save edits, click the Accept button at the bottom of the page.
Click Save Changes to submit.

Additional Submissions

Repeat the submission process to add a second roundtable submission. You can also exit and add a second submission at a later date.

On the first screen next to Submission List select Add.
Repeat Steps 2 through 4 above.

Questions

Questions regarding the online submission process should be addressed to englishconvention@niu.edu.

Submission Confirmations

Submitters will receive confirmations and acceptances through email using the email address associated with their account. Therefore it is vital that submitters keep their email addresses active through February 2014.

Please check your confirmation and retain it. The confirmation is a do not reply email from outreachhelp@niu.edu. It will include a five digit number that may be used as a reference in future communications with englishconvention@niu.edu.

Acceptance and Denial Notifications

Acceptance and denial notifications will be emailed on or before December 18, 2013.

Convention Submissions

Papers

Posters

Roundtables