Page 151 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

118 CHAPTER 5

barrier exams or portfolio readings in either first-year composi-
tion or at the rising junior level. The spectacle increases at the
K-12 level with the state and federal mandates under the No Child
Left Behind Act, and this spectacular event carries significant
memories with students when they attend college. All too regu-
larly, students consider these spectacular moments to be an un-
bearable hurdle rather than a measure of their writing abilities.
Time and again, students view these large-scale, high-stakes as-
sessment situations as a game subject to rules that students do not
always understand or do not see the purposes of. Just as often,
writing instructors do not always understand or do not see the
purposes for why such an assessment must occur. As McLuhan
(1964) noted, a hot technology has all types of consumerist and
nationalist connections, which also seem to appear when writing
instructors closely examine many mandated assessment prac-
tices. These consumerist and nationalist connections tend to in-
fuse themselves into the purpose of the assessment itself, which
deviates from the real intent of writing assessment. Although it
might be beneficial to explain to students (and to faculty) all the
underlying social, political, and economic concerns associated be-
tween writing and assessment to help them grasp the rules and
purposes related to the spectacle, the reverse might happen. Writ-
ing instructors more likely would convince themselves that the
writing test they are about to administer falls short of testing a
particular domain of interest—in this case, writing compe-
tency—and does more to foster some kind of cultural unity or eco-
nomic marker. Students most likely would become even more
cynical about the value of writing assessment and take the event
less seriously than many do right now. Neither situation bodes
well for assessment.
Conversely, writing generated with the assistance of the computer
is, in both Baudrillard's (1990) and McLuhan's (1964) view, "cool": a
technology that requires modulation and deliberate infusion of the
phatic function of language to communicate. For those unfamiliar
with the concept of phatic communication, this term refers to dis-
course strategies that open lines of communication. Small talk,
underlife discussions, exchanges regarding the weather or sports
teams, or any other accepted established rules for beginning or end-
ing conversations are categorized as being phatic. In conversations,
phatic discourse creates rapport, breaks the ice in new conversa-