The Cyberspace Writing Center Consultation Project Writing Works

Composition, literature, and technical writing students at Roane State e-mail their class essays to graduate students in rhetoric and writing at Arkansas. The graduate students make suggestions and comments and e-mail the paper back. The two students then meet at a WritingWorks location, virtual reality writing centers created and programmed for their use, to discuss the essay one-on-one. There they discuss the paper in more detail, and, if they like, paste the revision directly into their conversation.

The project benefits both groups. The community college students are exposed to university-level writing expectations, as well as to access to the Internet and the opportunity to learn new skills, and they benefit from a writing consultation from someone other than their instructor. The graduate students benefit from exposure to typical community college students in a different location, and receive additional practice in teaching. Both groups strengthen narrative writing and communication skills. The project itself combines the strengths of the community college with those of the university, improving relations between the two.

Further articles about the project are available, written by co-creators Jennifer Jordan-Henley and Barry M. Maid, both through Purdue University's Writing Lab Newsletter (linked below) and through the article Tutoring in Cyberspace: Student Impact and College/University Collaboration found in Computers and Composition: An International Journal for Teachers of Writing (Volume 12, Number 2, 1995).

For those interested in establishing such a project,
check out the following documents. You are welcome to use them with attribution.

• MOOving Along the Information Superhighway: Writing Centers in Cyberspace, (published in Purdue University's Writing Lab Newsletter in January 1995 and reprinted with permission).
• Rationale for the Project
• Sample E-mail Instructions
• Syllaweb: Cyberspace Composition I
• Sample MUD Instructions
• Guidelines for Consultations/Introductory Memo to Graduate Students
• MOO Building Hints and VR/WCenter Room Descriptions
• Computer Resource Policy
• Sample Syllabi Statement for Undergraduates
• Sample Student Evaluation Instrument
• Internet Etiquette
• Cyberspace Composition I: A Sampling of Student Essays

Related Links:

• The Roane State Community College Online Writing Lab
The RSCC OWL has a number of online documents and links to other OWLs across the nation. These OWLs offer hundreds of helpful handouts.
• The Alliance for Computers and Writing
The Alliance for Computers and Writing had its origins in the concept that more and more people are beginning to use technology in their writing classrooms and therefore require an immediate and continuing source of practical information, principally information shared by more experienced colleagues.
The Alliance seeks to coordinate the ideas and efforts of the following for the following: individual teachers and researchers, academic institutions, and business entities (publishers, software vendors, etc.)
• Daedalus Group, Inc.
• International Writing Centers Association
• Netoric Project
• Voice of the Shuttle: Technology of Writing Page
• Writing Resources

To: Roane State Community College OWL

Page born: May 30, 1995
Last Revised: June 12, 2001