Keith Dorwick, a teaching assistant in the Department of English at the University of Illinois-Chicago, has engaged an ambitious project on the Web called "Writing for the World: Student Writing For and On the Internet." According to Dorwick, "I would like to invite the readers of Kairos to add their classroom pages to the project, [which] I've been working on for about a year. The purpose of the page is to present as many links to student writing on the WWW (or anywhere on the Internet) as you all tell me about."
Dorwick, whose own English 214 Web is an impressive part of the site, continues, "I'm interested in collecting as many links to student-produced texts as I can from teachers of writing, both in the academy and outside it."
"However," he asks, "please do not send me the texts themselves. Instead, create a page on your web site that is a collection of student links. Then send me your URL for this page, your email address, and a name I can use as a link on my site." Dorwick openly acknowledges that some people may rightly be concerned about copyright issues, and he has adopted the position that "we are only posting links to work that, by definition, is already publically available as a result of being posted on the web."
Dorwick hopes the site can be available to teachers and researchers who are working with student writers and who are in the process of developing a rhetorical language for the Web. "However," he adds, "while hypertexts are most welcome, all forms of writing -- so long as they are presented on the Web -- are appropriate." Web scholars, students, and writers are not only permitted, but are encouraged by Dorwick to "include a link to WFW in your syllabi, research, and home pages," and to contact Dorwick directly.
Kairos 1.1 (Spring 1996): News