Words move. They move us to understand Canada’s tradition and diversity. They move 308,139 majors (as of 2015, Statistics Canada), including future leaders in politics, business, education, and culture, yearly through humanities programs of Canadian universities. They move $3.3 billion yearly through our publishing industry. They move people halfway around the world to visit Anne of Green Gables’ farmhouse on PEI. Words move differently now, through semi-conductors, across screens, at lightning speed, and in vast quantities. Scholars have studied how words make and move us for centuries, but the digital turn demands new tools and new tool environments. The Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory (CWRC, pronounced "quirk") / Le Collaboratoire scientifique des écrits du Canada (CSÉC) is an online infrastructure for literary research in and about Canada designed to meet the challenges and embrace the opportunities of the digital turn.
