Page 40 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

INTERNETWORKED WRITING 7

search or more effort, time, and overall work being put into a single
paper or project" (fall, 1998). This is an important step for under-
graduates to accept in the writing process, especially in the latter se-
quences of first-year composition devoted to argument, research
writing, and audience reaction.
As Freire suggested, students who reflect on themselves and on the
world in communication with others "increase the scope of their
perception" and "begin to direct their observations towards previ-
ously inconspicuous phenomena" (1993, p. 63). Again, let me draw
on another comment from a final course evaluation to illustrate the
effect that technological convergence has for encouraging students
to develop the type of self-awareness about their writing that com-
position faculty aim for each semester. Regarding how students have
come to recognize elements in their writing over the term, in the
evaluation this particular student says that the blend of networked
activities in the class "emphasized the difference between informal
writing and argumentative writing. I felt comfortable writing infor-
mally before I took this course. Now I also feel comfortable writing
argumentatively" (fall, 1998). For this student, just as for others like
him or her, the mix of writing and thinking in different media and in
different genres not only helped this person recognize discursive
changes but also aided the student in developing a comfort zone
when writing with different levels of formality.
What is it about computer-based writing environments that elicits
these types of student remarks, none of which are uncommon, as we
read in journal articles and hear in conference papers by our colleagues
who also practice computer-assisted writing instruction? As men-
tioned earlier in this chapter, online writing activities accentuate the
private-public split in the composing process. However, technology in-
verts what we think is private and public. Although each of us may
have private thoughts, once those thoughts are typed into a networked
space like e-mail or the web, our minds link with other minds. So, the
mind's private actions are made public instead of being kept unstated.
This is especially true with certain electronic genres like weblogs, as the
online journal format promotes the mind's continual reflection and
private action. The body, which is public in most social spaces, becomes
private when we communicate electronically. Unless all of us share the
same physical classroom space at some point in the semester, the stu-
dents and the instructor may not know what others look like in the
class or from where the students respond. When we compose