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The Call to Write's approach to writing invites us to imagine it as an integral part of the broad social world. This means that teachers of writing must come to see writing not in terms of stable modes or structural forms, but as social action--actions that The Call to Write identifies as genres. Carolyn Miller notes that "a rhetorically sound definition of genre must be centered not on the substance or the form of the discourse, but on the action that is used to accomplish it." If writing is part of the social world, then its genres emerge from the demands that the social world places upon writing. One way to think of genres is as trusted forms--forms that embody the activities that writing is asked to do on a regular basis in the social world; these activities include maintaining relationships, sharing information, solving problems, and evaluating works and performances. Genres like letters, reports, websites, proposals, and reviews are trusted to do this work. Genres present possibilities--opportunities for communication--and likewise present constraints--limits on communication by what they permit and the kinds of interactions they allow. Genres have a dynamic relationship with social environments, reflecting changes in the social world, even as they exert a kind of conservative influence by maintaining written conventions. This website is designed to assist you with using The Call to Write as it pertains to issues of writing, research, genre, and the social world online. Two major issues that emerge for writing teachers from the electronic age are online communication and multimedia and visual rhetoric. The material here gives practical teaching considerations for these two issues. Much of the material on the student section of this site also pertains to these issues; as you plan your teaching activities, you may wish to consult this material, particularly the Internet activities. A sample syllabus with teaching notes offers a possible framework for a course using The Call to Write. The annotated set of web resources will provide
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