Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition (Paperback)

by Anne Wysocki (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
With the rapid advance of electronic media in academe, in the writing classroom, and in the workplace, college teachers of composition are faced with the need to teach writing for a number of new venues, with a number of new technologies. The four authors of Writing New Media address the expansion of their field by proposing an expanded vision of composition—one informed by what’s possible in new media and by the changing conceptions of "composition" those new media bring. And they offer practical applications taken from their own classroom assignments to make their theorizing more concrete.

As new media mature, the changes they bring to writing in college are many and suggest implications not only for the tools of writing, but also for the contexts, personae, and conventions of writing. An especially visible change has been the increase of visual elements—from typographic flexibility to the easy use and manipulation of color and images. Another would be in the scenes of writing—web sites, presentation "slides," email, online conferencing and coursework, even help files, all reflect non-traditional venues that new media have brought to writing. By one logic, we must reconsider traditional views even of what counts as writing; a database, for example, could be a new form of written work.

The authors of Writing New Media bring these ideas and the changes they imply for writing instruction to the audience of rhetoric/composition scholars. Their aim is to expand the college writing teacher’s understanding of new media and to help teachers prepare students to write effectively with new media beyond the classroom. Each chapter in the volume includes a lengthy discussion of rhetorical and technological background, and then follows with classroom-tested assignments from the authors’ own teaching.

A significant contribution to composition studies, this work is one of the first major volumes to address this area with both theory and practice in mind. In addition, the structure of the book is unique, even trend-setting. In a field where the volume of collected essays is the dominant genre, these four writers have created a multi-author book with the diversity of a collection but the depth and coherence of a monograph.

About the Author
Anne Frances Wysocki teaches rhetoric, visual communication, and new media theories and production in the undergraduate Science and Technical Communication and graduate Rhetoric and Technical Communication programs a Michigan Technical University.

Johndan Johnson-Eilola works as a professor of Technical Communications at Clarkson University, teaching courses in information architecture, technical communication, usability, and mass communication.

Cynthia L. Selfe is a professor of Humanities in the Humanities Department at Michigan Technical University.

Geoffrey Sirc works in composition at the University of Minnesota’s General College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Utah State University Press; 1 edition (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874215757
• ISBN-13: 978-0874215755
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #348,806 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars bold ideas, but not for the timid..., April 21, 2009

By	L. Chrishaun Keller "Sique" (Austin) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For as long as any one even cares to remember, print, that is words on
the page, and the mastery of it, have been the aim of every
composition instructor we have ever met. Knowing the correct word to
put after the last word. Knowing structure. Knowing grammar. Knowing
your point, geting to it and getting it over with.

Print media has given way in many ways to the visual medium, where the
color, shape, and layout of the means as much (if not more) than the
word on the page. If there are words at all.

What does that mean for the teachers of composition? Are we obsolete?
No. Will we have to rethink everything we know about we know about
literacy? Not quite yet. Do we abandon the knowledge, theories and
applications that we have come to know to meet this challendge? No.

In the book, "Writing New Media: Theory and Application for Expanding
the Teaching of Composition", the authors do not proclaim from atop
the ivory tower of theory that all we know is of little value, rather
they each draw from the literacies currently in use as a set point to
complete the activities and exercises given after the respective
article.

Even though there are slight variations, the main thread of the book
would be that the definition of compostion is changing. And while the
print or alphabet-based literacy is still very relevant, it isn't the
only standard used to measure literacy. And as instructors of
compostion, we can takes cues from such varied areas as poetry,
geometry and music (Geoffrey Sire's "box-logic"); visual & graphic
design (Anne Frances Wysocki's "The Sticky Embrace of Beauty") or the
story of one person that was lost in one literacy, but found in
another (Cynthia L. Selfe's "Students that Teach Us") to expand what we
know and how we teach literacy.

If there was a key word to note here, it would be "expanding". The
lagacy literacies are remembered and honored in this series of
articles and exercises. And even if you have never used a computer
past Word or your email, activities such as Selfe's "A Visual Essay"
makes you a co learner with your students into the this very new area
of learning.

If there was one drawback, it would be that these concepts and activities
are very new and so far from the norm that reactions may swing from the
intimidated to the credulous. Be that as it may, this book is a very good
first step to the future of what we call compostition.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars umm ... interesting, October 23, 2008

By	eiie (United States) - See all my reviews

So Writing New Media wants to be a wake up call. It wants to instill shock and awe into teachers of writing and shake up the system. Only, as an instructor of college writing who has grown up with teachers who already brought "new media" into the classroom I as more annoyed than satisfied by the tone of the book.

The tone made me extremely angry. I felt like I was being attacked as I read the first 60 pages of the book. It wasn't until it was discussed in my graduate course that I realized I was angry because this tirade wasn't directed at me but at the "old school" teachers. I already bring in new media and mixed media into the classroom because I am of the generation that thinks NOT bringing it in is friggin boring.

There are some good notions at the end of the book, and the end of each essay ends in "in classroom exercises and activities" which are probably more helpful than the essays and tirades.