Page 200 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

REMEDIATING WRIT1NG ASSESSMENT 167

eracy standards. Part of remediated writing assessment will be for
teachers to consider the medium in which the student submits an
e-text for review. If language moves toward quick, efficient, and
timely representations in constrained forms like a cell phone, then
assessment must follow to some degree.
Another reason why assessment standards will change through
convergence relates to the logic of the image rather than the logic of
writing. As Kress explained, the book was organized and dominated
by the logic of writing (2003). This logic extends to how informa-
tion is organized or sequenced and shaped by the temporal, spatial,
or sequential practices of writing that have been passed along gen-
erations. The logic of the image, however, is spatial-simultaneous
(Kress, 2003). The logic of the image reorganizes how we write, be-
cause we now have to consider the arrangement of words on screen
in relation to the surrounding images. No longer do words alone
carry the text's content; the image shares in textual knowledge
making. Words and images form two different modes of thinking
and writing in electronic communication. Therefore, writers in
these new textual environments have to think differently about the
words and arrangements they use to communicate information.
Writers must become multimodal (Kress, 2003), and remediated
writing assessment means instructors have to begin to explore the
potential for as well as the limitations of multimodality in writing
and assessment.
The question of declining grammatical or mechanical standards
exists on campuses now, and much of the blame goes to Instant Mes-
senger programs or blogs or other electronic genres that function
outside of the legitimating realm of the university. This question
raises the relatively narrow understanding of language and technol-
ogy that many people possess. Language, particularly orthography,
is dynamic and highly subject to change. Frequently, language
moves toward simplicity for all users. It may be that because of glob-
alized communication via the Internet, American English is becom-
ing more standardized to fit the wide variety of users in networked
communication.
Writers who adopt the "texting language" found in cell phone or
Instant Messenger usage may be displaying advanced literacy skills
in that they are working with other discourse structures that will
become widespread in the near future. It is plausible to think that in
remediated writing assessment, a criterion for using discourse struc-