Argues that humor serves a critical ethos function in online communities created by mailing lists. Connects what humor theorists already recognize as a social dimension in joking to the contemporary interpretation of ethos as a constitutive force. Applies the model to the rhetoric of a university writing center mailing list. (SG)

Presents research to support the argument that patterns of interaction deeply entrenched within a patriarchal system cannot be undermined simply by offering access to a new medium such as computer-mediated communication. Claims that, in moving away from traditional discourse forms that oppress and marginalize women, scholars run the risk of those…

Explores the combination of on-line chat rooms with regular classroom interactions in a personalized English program and its potentials to enhance second language development. Suggests that the face-to-face interactions may have highlighted the participants' language problems and enhanced their awareness of such problems, whereas the on-line…

Finds that joking in computer-mediated communication constitutes a hybrid form of discourse, mingling the conventions of print and speech. Notes that students use typography and space to better capture the rhythms and inflections of oral joking, but such joking instantly organizes participants into hierarchically differentiated groups, creating…

Examines male and female students' participation in class discussions (measured in word counts). Finds that students participated more frequently in face-to-face discussions after they participated in a Daedalus Interchange sessions, but socially constructed variables such as gender lead some students to participate less frequently in traditional…

Illustrates how a new technological-writing practice, World Wide Web publishing, meshes and clashes with what academics have meant by plagiarism. Applies psychologist Pierre Bourdieu's theories of capital and symbolic violence to examine some ways Web publishing challenges and complicates scholars' taken-for-granted ways of controlling and…

Finds that rates of student participation in online discourse and the nature of that participation related to the nature of in-class lecture and discussion, to the ways in which the instructor framed and managed the uses of computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies, to the structure of the course, and to students' perceptions of the…

Conducts a Web-based survey of 75 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students about their online experiences as LGBT people. Concludes online resources were reported as most useful for obtaining basic information, for offering the ability to express oneself on LGBT issues and as a LGBT person, and for connecting with a larger LGBT…

Examines how computer-mediated communication and hypertext in a critical literacy pedagogy (focused on writing as the ideological problem to be examined) can (1) support a critical examination of how discursive-contexts-position authors in potentially oppressive ways; and (2) help highlight how discursive agency might be constructed so that…

Argues that First Amendment rights are not possible without the grant of public access to information provided by the doctrine of fair use. Notes that, with digitalization and electronic transfer, many corporate intellectual-property lawyers are pressuring for tightening public access. Argues that educators must understand that the existence of…

Examines existing copyright law, the ambiguous case law concerning copyrightable material and educators; university policies toward patent and copyright law; and the changing nature of educational institutions in the 1990s. Considers the question of who "owns" an online composition course. Outlines issues that composition instructors need to…

Argues that, by approaching conventions of citation and prohibitions against plagiarism in the classroom from the perspective of copyright issues, students can come to a greater understanding of the nature of scholarship. Makes recommendations for teaching students about the issues involved, and suggests ways that authors, teachers, and…

Describes how using conferencing software in a computer-assisted writing environment became a catalyst for a distinctive learning ecology that interrelated prosocial student behaviors, learner-centered teaching, and assessment. Argues that the conferencing class not only helped students apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills in…

Describes how an online conference was used in a graduate poetry class with students not accustomed to using technology in their coursework. Suggests that it extended the depth and quality of discussion, opening up new areas of discourse; and that students went beyond assigned topics to create and engage in their own discourse enriched by their…

Discusses a first-year writing class composed of both Hispanic-American and Anglo students, arguing that rather than regarding online conflicts between students as mere "flaming," such conflicts can be seen as a way of helping students develop as literate citizens more aware of difference. (SR)