Reflecting on the past, embracing the future

Abstract

In the Call for Papers for this anniversary volume of Assessing Writing, the Editors described the goal as “to trace the evolution of ideas, questions, and concerns that are key to our field, to explain their relevance in the present, and to look forward by exploring how these might be addressed in the future” and they asked me to contribute my thoughts. As the Editor of Assessing Writing between 2002 and 2017—a fifteen-year period—I realised from the outset that this was a very ambitious goal, l, one that no single paper could accomplish. Nevertheless, it seemed to me an opportunity to reflect on my own experiences as Editor, and through some of those experiences, offer a small insight into what this journal has done (and not done) to contribute to the debate about the “ideas, questions and concerns”; but also, to suggest some areas that would benefit from more questioning and thinking in the future. Despite the challenges of the task, I am very grateful to current Editors Martin East and David Slomp for the opportunity to reflect on these 25 years and to view them, in part, through the lens provided by the five articles appearing in this anniversary volume.