Opposing Point of Views

Thus far the advantages of online composition have been discussed. Many other educators take a dim view of teaching writing online. One of the largest concerns is reading ability. Fahnestock (1992) notes many students lack "world knowledge" which "includes very local knowledge of the subject matter at hand, as well as very general knowledge of what it means to be human in our world" (p. 235). The other type of knowledge readers need is linguistic knowledge, which has been studied by rhetoricians and linguists, (Bruffee, 1986; Burke, 1966; Halliday & Hansen, 1976; Winterowd, 1970), all of whom agree that "readers must have a set of expectations about how sentences can be related" (p. 237). Hayakawa (1939) discusses in great detail the difficulty of interpreting words and how without context there is no meaning. Over and over again we find that reading is difficult even if one is well-schooled in interpreting the symbols on the page -- meaning, at times, can elude us. Thus if the first-year composition student is not well versed in reading, she may have many problems interpreting assignments and tasks.

Poor reading skills may not be the only problem. Bolter (1991) warns that writing, like that in listservs and newsgroups, questions the assumptions regarding author and reader because "anyone can become an author and send his merest thoughts over Internets to hundreds of unwilling readers" (p. 101). Morever, Spooner and Yancey (1996) argue "the rhetorical situation of email is indeed different -- something beyond and apart from other genres" (p. 268). Bolter states, "The computer as writing space constitutes a new writing space with qualities unlike those of previous space of handwriting and printing" (p. 17). Other skeptics mention the problems of unstructured time and unlimited, uncensored information. Dyrli and Kinnaman (1996) advise, "It's hard to move into structured activity when they [students] are captivated by a new online experience" (p. 3). They elaborate by warning educators that they will put in triple-duty, as teachers must facilitate a student's self-discipline, critical reasoning, and discernment into a productive avenue.

The prevailing skepticism centers on a time-honored belief, as Berger (1962) cautions us,

No other form of social relating can reproduce the plentiful of symptoms of subjectivity present in the face-to-face situation. Only here is the other's subjectivity emphatically 'close.' All other forms of relating to the other are, varying degrees, 'remote.' (p. 28)

Subsections of Chapter II in Order of Apperance
[Distance Education] [Writing Educators Online] [Computers and Compostion] [Opposing Points of View] [Where Online Composition Fits] [The Need for the Study]

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Last Updated 10/20/01

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