Hart-Davidson is frustrated by this continuing need to justify the expenditure of limited computer resources upon writing instruction. He grows weary of defending the links between online conferencing in writing classes and what is perceived as "real" writing. Two strategies are recommended. The non-computer-writing people often speak of the need to teach the "writing process." If the process is more important than the product then networked writing gives the benefit of eliminating the importance of final drafts which must be printed and submitted. Or the opposition may be convinced by the example of the business world, to which undergraduates aspire, which relies upon computer-mediated writing. The first approach examines what is to be taught: process or product. The second examines the goals of teaching writing to undergraduates.
The movement toward a broader definition of literacy becomes a
question of teaching "writing." Those who resist should call
their courses "print conventions and culture." Rather than
answering Tuman's anxiety over change, Hart-Davidson raises the
spectre of resistance to the ineluctable.
(Norman Owens.)
Michael Hancher Department of English, University of Minnesota URL: http://umn.edu/home/mh/ebibno2.html Comments to: mh@umn.edu Created 22 May 1995 Last revised 17 September 1996