Writing the Information Superhighway

When you think about it, the expression 'Information Superhighway' is a false metaphor. Highways connect a limited number of places, and drivers on them travel slowly, seeing all points of topographical interest along the route. The Internet on the other hand connects every computer which is linked to it, and users travel at the speed of light, seeing absolutely nothing on a 'journey' between any two points.

Fortunately, Condon and Butler don't labour the metaphor, but concentrate instead on linking instruction on writing skills with the opportunities offered by digitisation and the Internet. Their aim is to offer "a guidebook to help learning communities that consist of students and teachers working together to use new technologies to learn not only traditional academic literacy but also the new literacies engendered by the new technologies."


The first part of their manual offers step-by-step instructions on developing ideas and how to convert observations into arguments, complete with detailed examples. The corresponding word-processing technology goes from cut-and-paste through to editing and formatting. This is followed by how to use e-mail, bulletin boards, and make connections with virtual communities via MUDs, MOOs and MUSHes. They cover searching in a rather brief chapter which in any future edition might ditch the instructions on FTP and WAIS in favour of more detail on search engines and how to evaluate the results they display.

The second part of the book deals with instructions on how to assess your own writing, building 'communities', and collaborative writing. Although they are addressed to students, these parts might be of particular use to tutors who are looking for teaching plans. They cover collective brainstorming, offering feedback, peer critiques, and sharing electronic texts. All this is followed by lots of encouragement on how to write critically and analytically, rather than just descriptively.

The emphasis becomes progressively concerned with leading students towards more complex and sophisticated writing tasks, eventually ending at the concept of adopting the appropriate 'language of discourse' for different disciplines. At this point the instruction gets back to the Web, pointing towards lists of URLs on HTML writing and style guides. There's an appendix of on-line resources, a glossary, and a full index.

This is a book which will appeal to students and tutors in those writing workshops which combine literacy and technology. There are plenty of them in the US, and an increasing number in the UK - which is presumably what the publishers had in mind.