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ConnectionsStudent guide to using the Internet in writing classes. An undergraduate student remarked to me recently: "American universities seem to support their students with more information on writing skills than the English". He had been searching the Net for support on his essay [term paper] and had spotted that many US departmental sites include downloadable notes on writing skills and links to web sites offering discipline-based support. He was also grappling for the first time with the problem of referencing his Web sources, so I was happy to point him in the direction of a book which might help.
The latter part of the book explains how to assemble your own web pages, and the appendices include a bibliography of Net resources; MLA guidelines for citing Internet references; notes on copyright and fair use; a list of HTML tags; and a glossary. You've got to be prepared for the jargon of writing tuition, ["the principles of rhetoric" as they call it] and there's rather a lot of political correctness mixed in amongst definitions of key terms and classroom discussion questions. However, they take an un-stuffy attitude to the potential distractions of classroom surfing, focussing their didactic energy on the need to evaluate sources and pay heed to the conventions of the medium. All their points are illustrated with practical examples, and there are plenty of screen shots - always a good sign in a book of this kind. They go into sufficient detail for readers to produce readable web pages which will display their term papers and research findings. The later sections even deal with issues of hypertext structure and navigational design for those who might wish to develop a full web site. It's refreshing to encounter this supposition that information will be shared, when an atmosphere of costive secrecy hangs over so many web sites in UK educational life. [If you don't believe me, go to any British university at ac.uk and try to find examples of student work or departmental exemplars. Some sites don't even list the staff who teach there.] I can easily imagine this book being used as a set text in a writing class. The exercises are clear and thoughtful, as are the tips for site-building. And the guidance on citing Internet sources [which my student had asked for in the first place] were taken from Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger's excellent Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources which we reviewed here last year. © Roy Johnson 1999 [more WRITING SKILLS books] Daniel Anderson, Bret Benjamin, Bill Paredes-Holt, Connections: a guide to on-line writing, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998, pp.331, ISBN 0205268471
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