The genre approach of The Call to Write leads us to consider the relationship between technology and writing and the significance of electronic communication as one profound change in the social environment for writing. Writing has always involved technology--it might even be said that without technology there is no writing, whether that technology is a quill, a pen, a typewriter, or a personal computer. The powerful changes occasioned by digital and cyber communication in the social world--the ease with which we produce texts, the low cost (relative to print) of digital texts, the expansive space of the Internet for publishing texts, the rapidity of textual exchange, the potential interactivity of texts, and the sheer recording capability of computers--have exerted a significant material and practical effect upon writing, upon the behaviors of writers, and upon the uses and functions of genres.
This website focuses on the particular effects and opportunities that digital and electronic technologies create for writers in the social world. Writing teachers will find many practical explorations to pursue along with their students, which will open questions of the differences between print and digital literacies, the kinds of texts that are and are not available online, the ways the digital world affects our notion of audience, and the entirely new forums that the online world introduces.
Discussion topics
For some practical ways to enhance discussion, click on the topics below:
- Online environments affect the way writers think about audience
- Online texts are interactive
- Online writing environments create changes in written behavior, both cognitively and culturally.
- Online research presents new opportunities as well as challenges.
- Composition classrooms can effectively incorporate electronic communication as a means to improve teaching and learning.
