Page 114 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

WHO OWNS THE WORDS? 81

the class, outside readers should also be invited to read the work and
respond to what they find. Something as simple as asking for external
evaluations for e-texts moves current writing assessment practices
toward the more authentic evaluations a "real" writer receives when
submitting a paper for review. Moreover, this type of assessment tool
offers a dialogic exchange between writers and readers and it shows
writers how their work creates an identity in cyberspace and how
others come to interpret this identity.
These little evaluative add-ons not only take the burden of as-
sessment away from a single instructor; they also show students
how various readers' needs are met. It is possible that small groups
of teachers and students familiar with e-texts could share the pro-
cess of evaluation, much like art or film departments conduct a
day-long critique of student work. By providing a space in the ac-
tual text or site where people could access reviews of a student's
work, writing faculty begin to educate others about what charac-
teristics make a hypertext or a web site or a MOO or a blog good or
poor. An archive of comments can be constructed as well, so stu-
dents and instructors could return to various sites to study what
respondents valued or rejected in the work. Creating an archive of
comments accessible to students and instructors is an important
step for avoiding what has been described as the "fictionalizing" of
student writers in traditional portfolio contexts (Schuster, in Black,
Daiker, Sommers, & Stygall, 1992, p. 319). Although a reflective
narrative can still be constructed to explain the student writer's ex-
perience, this narrative is built on a series of comments analogous
to the text and its production instead of on the students' personali-
ties, classroom demeanors, or rhetorical skill in writing reflective
letters. This seems to be the most workable way to establish an au-
thentic assessment of student-owned e-texts that respects the
rights of the students and the demands for learning outcomes that
programs, departments, and institutions now expect for courses.

IS THE CULTURE OF COMPOSITION TOO RIGIDLY
CONSTRUCTED TO ALLOW FOR COMPLETE STUDENT
OWNERSHIP OF THE TEXT?

As someone who has studied and taught in Composition for more
than 17 years, I want to believe Composition's culture is not so
driven by instructors' control that full student ownership of the