Topic Proposal--On the uses of OWLs

As I thought about the impact computers and technology have on writing instruction, I found that there were so many issues to discuss that it was hard to choose just one topic. After looking at the MLA and ERIC databases, I found several hits on the issue of online instruction. At first, I wasn’t too sure about researching online instruction because I immediately thought that it only related to online classes. However, I started looking at the sources a bit more and found that I had a few questions. The most general question that I started with was “How does online instruction positively and negatively affect students’ writing skills?” I thought about online instruction with respect to using online communication to supplement in-class activities; this could be via email, Blackboard, MOOs, etc. Then I came across the idea of online writing centers and how they could be used as supplements as well, but it wouldn’t have to stop there. How does using online writing centers as supplements for the writing process (prewriting, drafting, peer review, revising) affect our students’ writing skills? Right now, my thoughts are that online writing centers are essential resources that should be used frequently in all stages of the writing process to craft and challenge our students’ writing skills.

Though I have only done a small amount of research on these online writing centers, I have several ideas for why I think these centers can be useful in our teaching methods. My first question about OWLs is about their effectiveness with getting students to write for different audiences. When my students feel that they are only writing for me, their instructor, I feel that they are limiting the possibility for expanding their skills on appealing to audience. I can tell them to pretend that they are writing for a particular audience as much as I want, but there is a clear difference between make-believe and the real thing. I know that the writing center at Eastern has mainly graduate assistants who work with students, but I wonder what the impact would be if there were other audiences within the writing center that could give their perspectives. What would be the effects of having both graduate assistants and certain professional writers work with students in the writing center? I know that it would be difficult to appeal to certain professionals and to house such an operation, but what happens if this is adapted to the online environment. There would have to be some incentive and a selection process, much like the one for the graduate assistants, for the professionals to view these students’ work, but it is a possibility. These professionals could login to Eastern’s OWL from anywhere in the country and be able to read certain pieces from students and critique their ability to write for their particular audience. Of course there are other options as well, but I think that this is one way to give students the feeling that their writing does matter to someone other than their instructor. I’m sure that there are many pros and cons to this type of online writing critique, but I am willing to take a closer look at this possibility and see what I can find.

Something else that came to mind as I was searching for information about OWLs is the matter of promoting students to get multiple perspectives on their papers to help with the revision process. I know that my students mention to me that they would like to have more than one person read their papers during the reader review process before turning them in to me. Of course I mention to these students that they can go to the Writing Center to seek more opinions, but they seem to be resistant. I wonder if OWLs would make it easier for students to make time for getting additional critique before turning in their final drafts? I think that OWLs would be very beneficial to these students, but the way they are now organized I feel that students would be more inclined to email their paper to an OWL tutor for quick fixes rather than thoughtful suggestions about content and writing style—somehow students expect the in-person writing center experience to be just that. Is there a more “real-time” interactive format for use in OWL to preserve some of that one-on-one conference style? I am reminded of how U of M formatted their OWLs in an email format. A student has the option of emailing their paper with a form that tells the tutor what the student needs help with and within three days the paper is reviewed and returned. I’m not sure if this is how it works now, since I haven’t used U of M’s system in the past four years. However, I would like to know if this form of review is the most beneficial for the student and the tutor. It may work for the tutor, because he or she can read through the paper and the form to make the appropriate comments in an efficient amount of time. Though, I feel that the lapse in time between when a student submits a paper and when he receives it back can have a negative effect on the success of the revision process itself. I feel that you can only give a certain amount of writing critique when you write it down. It leaves no options for any type of further conversation between the writer and the reviewer: no time for questions or collaboration. I think I will definitely want to explore this issue more closely as I conduct more research.

Right now, I feel that there are several avenues that I would like to explore with regards to the impact OWLs have on students’ writing skills. I think that the more research I find in this area, the more questions I will raise for myself. OWLs and their relationship to writing across the curriculum, is one more place where I would like to explore. At the time I am still not sure if this issue is readily present in the minds of the teaching community, but it is still a possibility to keep in mind as I continue to conduct my research.

Introduction

I plan on using this blog to record my thoughts and ideas about my research project for the semester. I have not narrowed down a specific topic, but I would like to look at how students use their knowledge about Internet communication in their writing for academic purposes. Some examples would be: their use of IM lingo when they are not communicating in IM, the way that they prefer the writing process to be instantaneous, like technology, and how they struggle with the lengthly revision process.

In-class blog

Example of a sample blog