English 101 is a transferable-credit composition course that, in the words of the course catalogue, "[e]mphasizes the organization and development of expository prose," and is an "[i]ntroduction to the critical reading of selected essays." To pursue those goals, this course focuses on the process of producing successful writing. In any writing situation, this process includes reading and examining approaches to similar writing situations; generating personal responses to those writing problems; and writing thoughtful, intelligent essays that meet the demands of the writing problem and follow the conventions of standard written English.

An online course in the process of producing successful writing proceeds on four assumptions. One: Writing is a social act that exist within cultural, hisorical, and political contexts. Among other things, this means that what is important in one context might not be important in another. Similarly, it suggests that on an abstract level all writing resonates between contexts and on a more specific level that all writing serves a practical function within a specific context. Two: Writing is responding. Ideas for writing are not pulled out of thin air. Composition means to put things together; thus, it is by definition the process of alteration and transformation, and of response and presentation. Our writing improves when we actively respond to something we read, see, hear, feel, or otherwise experience. Three: the online environment alters significantly the way that writers pursue their work. We'll start the semester with the premises that (1) the goals of traditional composition instruction are valid and desirable; and (2) to the extent that the online environment challenges traditional conceptions of writing, online composition instruction represents an important critique of the tradition. Four: Grammar is the fundamental structure of language that makes the written expression of ideas possible. Thus, in any language it is impossible to express an idea in a form that merely approximates the grammar of that language.

This particular section of English 101 at Harper is an online, or internet-based, section. In practice, this means that Internet technology will be the primary delivery vehicle for the content of the course, instead of, say, lecture and discussion in a classroom. This means that students will complete the majority of their classwork by using computer and internet technologies, such as word processors, e-mail, e-mail file attachments, discussion forums, chat applications, and so on.More abstractly, it means that Internet technology will mediate the work of the class: the technology will enable your work, but it will also affect it in significant ways.

Yet--and in regards to student success this is very important for students in this course to understand--this is not a self-paced, correspondence course. While all writing is in many ways an independent activity, it is just as much a collaborative activity, especially in academic and professional contexts. So, for instance, students will be asked regularly to contribute substantively to asynchronous (that is, not in real time) discussion conferences about assignment topics; to participate thoughtfully in small- and large-group chat sessions (real-time conversation), and to respond collaboratively to classmates' drafts of essays. If this sounds a lot like the instructional method of a classroom-based written composition class, you're right, because it is. The goals and objectives of traditional composition instruction are desirable and practical; technology itself gives us no reason to abandon them.

Nonetheless, recent scholarship in composition suggests that Internet-based technologies have a fundamental impact on the way that readers read and writers compose (Selfe, 1997; Porter; 1998; Aarspeth, 1998; Johnson, 1998; Sullivan, 1997). These scholars suggest that while Internet technologies can help us revise our ways of thinking about writing (and writing instruction) in order to focus more directly on how we use writing in our lives, including how we learn and make meaning through writing in the information age, traditional conceptions of writing can also be used to critique the usefulness of the tools--the technologies--themselves. In other words, abandoning without question traditional aspects of writing instruction, such as using Internet technologies to deliver English 101 as a correspondence or self-study course, is perhaps misguided. That is one of the instructional principles that guides this course.

Please keep in mind, though, that English 101 Online is not a computer course. We must not let the technology co-opt the course. In other words, the goal is to use the technology to make learning more flexible, not to make learning the technology the focus of the course. Of course, many students will need to spend a little time getting used to those technologies. But everyone should all be aware that no technology, not even pencil and paper, is without limitations. Information technology is no different; and it often creates problems seemingly out of thin air.

So, please expect to be frustrated with and by the technology at one time or another. And more importantly, please never be afraid to ask for help with technology-related problems as well as with composition-related problems.