6.5.14: Online Writing Instruction – Rhetorically Analyzing Online Composition Spaces

6.5.14: Online Writing Instruction – Rhetorically Analyzing Online Composition Spaces

               In her essay, “Rhetorically Analyzing Online Composition Spaces,” Laura Ewing advocates a pedagogy which utilizes nontraditional discourse in her online English composition courses. She writes that her interest in designing this project was initially sparked by Kathleen Yancy’s keynote address during the 2004 Conference on College Composition and Communication. Yancy challenged educators to consider ways of harnessing the same passion that students often demonstrate in their out-of-class writing in their composition class, and how to bring that same level of energy and motivation that they often devote to this “everyday” writing into their compositional arguments and analytical work.

               The main purpose of her essay was to share her own planning and, then, experiences in actively utilizing a compositional pedagogy that brought in more active/social writing in a variety of web 2.0 applications. Yet, despite the lack of numerous scholarly citations, Ewing’s essay proved quite compelling and indeed useful for online writing instructors. Indeed, in prompting her students to write and compose in spaces like Yelp and Youtube, the students were thus required to consider the rhetorical contexts of the space they were writing in, while also maintaining awareness of their authorial presence/persona, and the public setting with which they were engaged. She states that students were able to move from “creating a traditional composition essay, to taking an active role in their learning community and creating something that existed beyond the boundaries of the classroom while incorporating the ideas of writers outside of our immediate community” (556). These are certainly more sophisticated rhetorical moves than are generally required in composition classes, and what’s more – the students were more eager and enthusiastic to engage with the material in these diverse spaces.

               Ewing’s pedagogical project, “Rhetorically Analyzing New Media Arguments,” consisted of approximately three distinct parts: “Internet Persona,” “YouTube as a Stage,” and “Yelp It!,” all culminating in a formal writing assignment. Additionally, she incorporated analysis of the students’ own personae online, the use of rhetorical strategies in various online situations, peer reviews, discussion boards, podcasts, and active blogging. The final outcome of the project “focused on students recognizing the different rhetorical moves they implemented themselves when reading and reacting to an online discussion” (556).

               Ultimately, the specific steps she utilized and the results she garnered have inspired me to incorporate some of her pedagogical tactics in my own planning. The decisions and justifications for her assignments certainly appear to be sound, and are beneficial to the students in their academic and professional lives. Ewing does end with a bit of advice for the online writing instructor seeking to emulate a similar project. She writes, “I found this project to be successful, though it required a good deal of effort on my part to review all online forums and keep track of the various spaces students used” (560). Just as online courses often require a bit of extra effort from the student, as instructors, we would do well to also consider how our pedagogical choices will affect our time management as well.

Ewing, Laura A. "Rhetorically Analyzing Online Composition Spaces." Pedagogy 3 (2013): 554-560. Project MUSE. Web. 2 June 2014.