abstract

background

theory

praxis

models

course

a challenge
slow development
web authoring
lessons

references

At some point in the Fall 2000 term, I had a conversation with Richard E. Miller about research writing and technology. We had recently launched the writing program's website (http://wp.rutgers.edu), and discussions of technology and pedagogy were in the air. We were discussing appropriate web resources for the advanced composition sections of the website. During the conversation, he suggested that we would soon see students submitting their essays as multimedia CD projects.

While I am not sure Richard intended his comment as a challenge to either me or our program, I interpreted it as a challenge. It seemed to me that my research writing courses were the ones most suitable to the kind of project I think he had in mind. Students in Research in the Disciplines spend most of the term working on an individualized analytic research project. I had not read Joseph Janangelo's (1998) article on hypertext and collage in which he documents his struggle to make sense of academic hypertexts written by his students. Still, I sensed that it would be important to provide students with guidance on academic hypertext if we were to help them make the most of such projects.

Almost immediately, I began to consider how the Rutgers Writing Program might encourage the development of research projects as hypertexts while structuring the production of such projects. The solution we worked out for two years involved linking Research in the Disciplines to a course in our business and technical writing division called Web Authoring.

abstract | background | theory | praxis | models | course