Page 199 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

166 CHAPTER 7

Computer technology and its attendant offspring (laptops, cell
phones, PDAs, wireless devices) inverted the power to control lan-
guage and granted greater access to e-texts. Writers no longer need
an outside authority to legitimate the printed word. Moreover, as
many instructors have learned through our own experiences, these
devices' constrained spaces require different objectives for the writ-
ten word. Now, the goal with much of written language is to be
quick, efficient, and timely. The receiver's acknowledgment of the
message sent is often adequate enough to ensure legitimacy in a
sent message.
Over time, the standards for writing assessment will most likely
evolve to consider these three elements—quickness, efficiency of lan-
guage, and timeliness of message content—as well as the electronic
medium used to generate the e-text as part of "good" writing.
Remediated writing assessment decades from now may be incredibly
immediate and transparent in that a student could use a wireless de-
vice like a cell phone or PDA to write an e-text for a college entrance
writing exam, if such a genre exists in the future (see Mike
Palmquist's discussion regarding future PDA use in Hart-Davidson
and Krause, 2004). More institutions are moving toward direct stu-
dent placement for their writing programs, which reduces the need
for a placement essay. Those colleges and universities that still re-
quire a writing exam have already moved to putting the college en-
trance essay or placement essay online, and as technology improves,
it is not implausible to see wireless devices as part of this process. The
immediacy of this writing context is that students will not perceive
the e-text to be a writing test. Therefore, writing instructors should
see more authentic student writing rather than the rigidly mimetic
student essays now generated in response to testing situations. It is
important to note that the student's composition may look more
like the phonics-based writing we find on cell phones or BlackBerry
transmitters today. That future text would reflect the real or per-
ceived constraints of space that students realize exist in online writ-
ing. In many ways, future student writers might function like
journalists on deadline, punching out assignments on BlackBerrys
or cell phones and submitting them for review. That is why we must
realize that language will evolve to conform to this new writing
space. Eventually, as convergence becomes complete, an entrance
composition written in texting language may be perfectly acceptable
given the changing nature of the medium, the written word, and lit-