What Writing Students Get From the Net: Using Synchronous Communication
to Develop Writerly Skills
The Character Creation Unit -- Using Synchronous Communication to Develop
Audience Awareness
In this unit, students experimented with ways to present a writer's
voice and persona to an audience by creating and maintaining four different
"characters" in an online social environment. Their assignment was to write
a compare/contrast essay evaluating the ways in which others interacted
with them as they presented themselves in four different ways. The four
characters were:
-
the student’s “everyday” self -- although students did not have
to use their real names for this character, the identity for this character
would be the one closest to the way the student usually interacts with
other social groups.
-
“simple opposite” -- students were instructed to create a character
that characterized their opposite in the broadest categorical terms (gender,
race, class, age, temperament, etc.)
-
more complex difference(s) -- for this character, students were
encouraged to think of "difference" in more complex and subtle ways
-
an inanimate or surreal object/being -- moving difference out of
the body, students were encouraged to be creative in constructing this
character
We began with some discussion of the issues surrounding online identity and with
some practice finding and using MOOs and MUSHes. Students experimented with their
characters in their own time without instructor interference. What follows breaks
down the unit step-by-step and assesses the success through student response.