Page 104 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of New Media On

WHO OWNS THE WORDS? 73

and takes risks, perhaps even having the greatest risk in being
graded, but when decisions and grade transactions are made by the
other partners, the evaluating instructors, she is rendered word-
less. The student's other partners decide for her the best course of
action regarding her text—her intellectual property. Unlike the si-
lent business partner, who can pull her capital if the active partners'
actions run counter to the silent partner's, the student-as-silent-
partner's property can be co-opted by the other partners without
great regard for the student's intangibles in the writing process.
But, to what extent should students be involved in an assessment?
Is a reflective letter or statement or preface to one's work enough to
give voice to the silent partner? And if the student owns his or her
own words with regard to online contexts, as it seems court rulings
indicate, what makes for an authentic assessment?
This last question becomes a thorny one if students truly do own
their words in online communication in the writing classroom.
Like formal education, computer technology also socializes writers
in various communities and affirms their membership through
language. Much like the idea of writing assessment, the computer
also strains the notions of community and writing to reflect a col-
lection of independent thoughts on e-mail, web sites, chat rooms,
blogs, and MOOs. Unlike formal education and assessment, how-
ever, computer-inspired learning resists outcome objectives and
goal direction. Rather than norm the literacy process, Internet cul-
ture puts the obligation on the user to gather, sort, and evaluate the
information in front of her. If anywhere, this is the point where
computer-based composition and current writing assessment
practices are diametrically opposed: who owns the words the
writer uses. At one time, the writer did. But, in cyberspace, as the
reader scrolls screens and links, the reader owns the words. The
reader clearly adopts and appropriates them for her own if she im-
ports the words into her own text. When an e-text is evaluated, the
instructor owns it as she makes her marks and annotations on
screen. Similarly, anyone who accesses the student's e-text from
elsewhere on the Internet can own the student's words by taking
them and incorporating them into other e-textual forms. In each
instance, the student's writing loses its connection to time (and
sometimes to space) and becomes subject to greater integration of
other texts, methods of inquiry, and instances of encounter, all of