(a) The brief approach that functions more like an announcement but that, nonetheless, summarizes and critiques a book;

(b) the longer 'anthology review' that examines and critiques a collection of articles/books from different sources but on the same theme, such as is done in Quarterly Journal of Speech and College English;

(c) and another longer approach that is actually a 'review article,' comparable to those published in Diacritics.

     Now that P/T is in its second decade, I intend to change the policy of reviewing books by inaugurating a newer approach. I intend to combine the review article with the format of an interview. Specifically, books and 'articles' and 'special issues of journals' will be reviewed by a 'collective.' (I am defining a 'collective' as either a 'reading group' or 'study group' [with at least five people in it], of which there are numerous in rhetorical/critical theory already formed around the country.) This approach to 'reviewing,' however, will not simply be a review of the work under consideration, but will be an inter/view of the author of the book, about the book. It will be expected that each collective will have prepared carefully and thoughtfully for the inter/view, re/view (that is, will have prepared not only by reading/studying the work under consideration but also by reading/studying previous works by the author).

     Why this approach? I think that a thoughtfully prepared 'communication' by five to ten people directly to the author of a book/article so that s/he might respond to questions, comments, and critical interventions will be productive in ways that traditional review articles have not been capable of. I hope that such a communication will more readily open up a book/article to 'the larger collective' of the profession. Moreover, I hope to encourage the founding of new study groups in the field and would like to see the outcome of all this productive work being published and made available...."

Victor J. Vitanza,
in the Fore/Word(s) of various issues of PRE/TEXT, the journal.

March 1995: Since I published this policy statement in the pages of P/T, a number of things have happened. We have conducted re/inter/views and published their transcripts in P/T. Perhaps more importantly, though, has been the advent of the PRETEXT Conversations, a series of on-line discussion lists. The PTCs upped the ante on the possibility of re/inter/views, insuring that at all times, there would be a large group of interested members of the profession from which a re/inter/viewing collective might arise. Furthermore, the re/inter/views that have taken place in the REINVW list of the PTCs have been relatively unhindered by geographical barriers, authorial deadline problems, or loss of interest. Re/inter/views have become an active, ongoing part of the PTCs, and have exposed its subscribers to a number of the important voices inthe field. Collected above are some of those voices.

11 July 1996: Now that we have moved to the SPOON COLLECTIVE Lists;
9 April 1998 and Yet again have moved to our own domain name pre-text.com,