Web log (blog) technology has evolved into Composition’s latest teaching tool. Instructors use blogs as daily journals to post their ideas and musings, as interactive syllabi, as a means to generate out-of-class discussions, and as a general communication tool for keeping in touch with their students and colleagues. While most blogs are used regularly in traditional first-year composition classes or advanced courses in composition, blogging can be an excellent addition to the basic writing classroom.

Blog use in the basic writing class can be the bridge that spans the digital divide for many of our students. Even though personal computers are becoming more affordable for families, there are still great numbers of new college students, particularly in two-year colleges across the country or those from urban or rural regions, who have very limited computer access or skills. These students can benefit greatly from incorporating blogging in basic writing class activities. For those students who come from secondary schools where blogging is happening but whose writing is not at college level expectations, the blog can be a familiar form of writing where their abilities can be honed through repeated practice (Selingo, 2004).

The Advantages of Blogging in the Basic Writing Classroom

Most basic writing teachers agree that building verbal fluency and voice are critical steps for emergent writers. Equally important is the student writer discovering how to learn the basic structures (sentences, paragraphs, genres) of written discourse. Achieving these steps takes practice, and for many emergent writers, the physical demands of holding a pen or pencil to generate letters on a page can be tortuous and obscures further learning about writing. For some students, the act of writing can be almost as painful as coming up with a topic to write about. The keyboard and the blog may reduce the physical challenges of forming script for these students.

The computer-mediated aspect of blogging also makes writing approachable for some hesitant students. A blog encourages instant thought-to-Web production. Many blogs are personal musings on the day, and students can write for ten or fifteen minutes on the events that affect their lives. It doesn’t matter that a student will only write a tiny amount in that time. The short two or three line text bursts that are a blog’s hallmark is appealing for working with emergent writers, as this helps reduce the difficulties some have in creating a topic to write on in a short period of time.

While many personal blogs sound like gossip or expose readers to unwanted voyeurism about one’s life, the mundane offerings emergent student writers put forward can teach them several important elements in the writing process: storytelling structures, sharing knowledge or expertise, individuality in written expression, and the influence of an audience. Because blogs are public, classmates or other visitors can comment on a writer’s post, lending another voice beyond that of the instructor’s to point out errors in thinking, idea development, or clarity.

With practice or with a more advanced group of basic writers, the blog can become an essay or journal site in which the students can post longer, more thematic texts. Students develop a genuine classroom text that external readers can respond to, which gives the class a sense of ownership over its work. Another possibility for students learning about electronic genres is for them to conduct distributed conversations, which span several blog sites and often spur a wide range of opinions and debate on different issues.

TheDisadvantages of Blogging in the Basic Writing Classroom

As I mentioned earlier, part of the difficulty with personal blogs is that most tend to be voyeuristic for the outside reader. Students will need to think carefully about how much personal information they want to share with the world. People have been fired for discussing their addictions or issues with employers or colleagues. Some have problems with other family members because of a blogger’s airing of ‘family business.’ Students should be made aware of these pitfalls in blogging. However, this disadvantage can be turned into a terrific opportunity to discuss how a writer needs to frame his or her ideas for a public venue (Blood, 2002; Bausch et al, 2002).

Students and their instructors also have to discuss the limits of self-disclosure, such as how to manage one’s identity online, and how to respect others’ privacy. Beyond issues related to self-disclosure, students and their professors need to talk about time management issues related to blogging. How often will the blogs need to be updated, how interactive do the blogs need to be, and what topics will be acceptable for a classroom blog are all questions that a class has to engage in to make blogging a successful experience (Bausch et al., 2002; Stone, 2002). Again, these disadvantages could become “teachable moments” in the writing classroom.

Similarly, issues of appropriate language must be addressed. While writing instructors want to encourage an honest voice, student writers need to be aware that foul, obscene, defamatory, or polemic discourse can be detrimental in online content. As with the other points in this section, this disadvantage can be turned into an excellent lesson on voice, tone, and mood for emerging writers (Blood, 2002; Bausch et al., 2002; Stone, 2002).

Lastly, as issues of accountability in writing instruction reach into the college writing classroom, the question of how to evaluate a student’s blog entry becomes important. Should a blog be treated like a journal or is it a different type of genre because of its public nature? Do instructors simply give credit for students writing on blogs, or will there come a time when it will be necessary to evaluate/grade this type of writing in a more formal manner?

As Steven D. Krause notes, blogging can go awry in classroom spaces. Instructors have to understand how blogging works and how writing and blogging can be integrated to improve student writing. Aron Patric Campbell’s online article regarding the efficacy of blogging in ESL classes is one place where instructors can look to for criteria to encourage blogging in the basic writing classroom http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-Weblogs.html. Technology only works as well as the persons using it; that is why if instructors decide to blog in the basic writing classroom, it is up to us to manipulate the technology in ways that help our students grow as writers.

Questions for Discussion

Here are the questions I thought were relevant in thinking about bringing blogging into the basic writing classroom:

• What are your expectations for having emergent writers blog in the classroom?
• What do you hope basic writers would learn from blogging in their writing classes?
• How have you addressed some of the disadvantages blogging can bring to the writing classroom, whether the classroom is basic, fyc, or advanced? Does the level of the classroom matter with regard to the disadvantages connected to blogging?
• Can blogging demystify either the writing process or the use of computers for academically underprepared students?
• How can we assess a student writer’s progress if blogging becomes a part of the curriculum? Is it necessary to have an assessment model in place for blogging?
• How can we move students away from highly personal writing in a blog format?

References

Teaching Basic Writing