Writing in Online Courses

"With the research presented in Writing in Online Courses…, we (as instructors) can be better equipped for the trial and error of writing pedagogy, as we hope for teachable moments to emerge and for a productive community to develop within our online courses. [It} offers methods, ideas, and starting points that I hope teachers and researchers take up, try out, fail at, learn from, and build upon to expand the field’s corpus of innovative pedagogical strategies for digital composition instruction and of researched insight into how humans write and communicate in an ever-evolving online space." For the complete Composition Forum review, click HERE.

"Rather than viewing the online classroom as inferior to the traditional face-to-face classroom, this engaging collection embraces the unique learning opportunities available to both students and teachers in an online and hybrid classroom where the act of writing is made central. Firmly grounded in contemporary pedagogical theory, individual essays variously examine intersections between technology and writing practices, student identity formation, and the development of academic discourse. All instructors who value the importance of student writing and teach in an online environment should read this book as it provides inspiration, insights, and sound advice into how they can improve their instruction and student learning outcomes."

Pam Lieske, Professor of English - , Kent State University-Trumbell

"Putting writing at the center of any class is no mean feat, but the authors in this collection keep writing at the heart of their online classes. That’s impressive. Even more impressive is the wide range of pedagogies and instructional techniques they employ to do so. The challenges of teaching writing online are daunting even to veteran writing teachers, but these essays are so practical, brimming with wisdom and helpful advice, that they inspire us to accept the challenge and reconsider the potential in online writing instruction." For the complete Composition Studies review, click HERE.

Bob Mayberry, California State University Channel Islands - Composition Studies 46.1 (2018): 183–186

"We are, perhaps, past the days when adopters of online teaching felt called upon to defend the practice among their more traditionally-minded colleagues. Even so, readers of Writing in the Online Classroom, edited by Phoebe Jackson and Christopher Weaver, will gain much to help make the case for online instruction. On the one hand, as Jackson and Weaver observe, online teaching might seem to forestall the close relationships formed through the give-and-take of the classroom setting. Moreover, the volume’s contributors agree that the online classroom does alter student–teacher and student–student relationships. The collection also argues, however, that online teaching, which is almost entirely conducted through writing, creates possibilities for instruction, particularly in the area of writing, that the traditional in-person classroom might not provide. Some of the contributors go so far as to argue that the online classroom is more effective than in-person instruction for achieving certain learning outcomes and dispositional changes in their students. While the occasion of the book is deeply informed by the inquiries of composition theory, the discussion will prove accessible for readers from any discipline and for both practitioners of online teaching and those interested in theory concerning it. The volume will surely help online instructors to better understand the possibilities of their instruction and will inspire ideas for enhancing it. Each of the essays establishes its own critical entry into the subject, and many are informed by a range of specific disciplinary questions and imperatives. The result is a fascinating dialogue, as the writers highlight different facets of a more or less interrelated inquiry about how we should think about writing in these new instructional spaces."

Teachers College Record

Introduction: Why Do You Teach Online

Part I: Technology and the Writing Practice
1. Past to the Future: Computers and Community in the First Year Writing Classroom
2. “She Really Took the Time”: Students’ Opinions of Screen-Capture Response to Their Writing in Online Courses
3. Shifting Again: Electronic Writing and Recorded Speech in Online Courses
4. Revising the Defaults: Online FYC Courses as Sites of Heterogeneous Disciplinary Work

Part II: Negotiating Identity Online
5. Creating and Reflecting on Professional Identities in Online Business Writing Courses
6. Free to Write, Safe to Claim: The Importance of Writing in Online Sociology Courses in Transforming Disposition
7. Facework and the Negotiation of Identity in Online Class Discussions

Part III: Learning Academic Discourse Online
8. The Reading-Writing Connection: Engaging the Literary Text Online
9. Getting Down to Earth: Scientific Inquiry and Online Writing for Non-Science Students
10. Shifting Perspectives about Teaching Writing Online: A Conceptual Framework Approach for Transfer
11. Hybrid Spaces and Writing Places: Ecoliteracy, Ecocomposition, and Ecological Self

Phoebe Jackson

Phoebe Jackson is professor of English at William Paterson University. She has published work in composition studies and on American women writers including Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Carolyn Chute, Elizabeth Strout, and Harriette Simpson Arnow. With Emily Isaacs, she co-edited the book, Public Works: Student Writing as Public Text.

Christopher Weaver

Christopher Weaver is an Associate Professor of English and the Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at William Paterson University. Dr. Weaver writes about composition theory and pedagogy. He is the co-editor of The Theory and Practice of Grading Writing which was chosen as the outstanding book of the year in the field of education by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.

Interview with Christopher Weaver - authint