The result of this evolution is described in this article.  It is not a tightly constructed, theory-based project. Rather, it came together almost by chance.  First, as much as I was attracted to innovation in the form of technology and theory, I still have a strong attachment to conventional rhetoric.  Thus I taught advanced composition using traditional models and assigning traditional writing tasks such as writing developing argumentative pieces a la Toulmin's system of logic, and emulating traditional forms.  I did this because I feel Toulmin provides a good foundation for reading and writing argumentation and, frankly, because I like so many of the great essays.  I also felt that my students would benefit from seeing the cultural impact of so many of the ideas that have come down to us through Plato, Wollstonecraft, Swift, Paine and others.  I served up this conventional menu on an electronic platter, partly because I enjoy teaching with computers, partly because I wanted my students to have a better understanding of electronic text, and partly to curb the exorbitant cost of textbooks.  While online, however, I could not help myself from talking about the unique nature of electronic text in relation to print, demonstrating these differences through virtual tours of  hypertexts and alternative electronic versions of the readings such as "The Allegory of the Cave."  Before long, the second half of the class was devoted almost entirely to electronic text, and, by the way, students would also create a simple web page using Microsoft NotePad.

The I-Search essay assignment was, in my mind, another way of helping student understand the research form in a more intimate manner.  It allows students to blend personal and academic writing and seemed to bring out the best in my students.  Initially, I assigned the I-Search as a final paper, something of a reward for a semester of hard work -- a reward for the students and the professor.  It was fun, different and accessible to students, a kind of back door approach to research writing.

In the middle of all this, I traditionally required an oral presentation, a way for student to share their work with the rest of the class.  This was, like too much of the class, a somewhat disembodied assignment, floating about without a clear connection to the class.  Help for this confusion came, as it almost always does, from my students.  At first one or two asked to create a web page about the I-Search. Then it was a simple step to using the web page to present.  At some point, it clicked in my feeble brain (I've never claimed to be lightning quick). This looked to me very much like Lanham's Rhetorical Paideia.

The result was a far more intentional, coherent approach to advanced composition in which the centerpiece was this triad, conventional text, electronic text and presentation or performance. This is the class as I teach it today. I give the assignment during the first week of class, following up periodically with work on the I-Search form, web page authoring and, throughout, research and argumentation. Students write three formal essays in traditional forms before the gates are opened and they have full freedom to create the I-Search.  It is deceptively rigorous in spite of the overtly personal, first person format.

Students look at models of I-Search projects, some good, some not so good, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each. They freewrite at the start of nearly every class, often exploring and developing project ideas. From time to time, I ask students to loop these freewrites to further mine ideas. Much of this invention work is done in class in a workshop setting.

The computer-intensive segment of the class begins with a gentle web-page exercise. I teach students how to create a simple page using NotePad to plug in basic HTML elements and tentative I -Search headings. I have students compose the code in text because I believe they should understand the bones of the web page and, if necessary, be capable of going into the code to find and fix problems. Once students begin to get the knack and, inevitably, want to do more with their pages, we look at web design and evaluation. Each web project requires a front page, at least three links to relevant sites and links to the I-Search and the works cited. I ask for a clean, easy to navigate design and for simplicity. The web site must reflect the I-Search paper without being simply an online version of the document (even though that is also linked). I try to help students visualize what this means by having them outline their essays and creating a kind of story board.

The I-Search paper and web site are developed, created and revised through a classroom workshop environment in which project work is a mixture of composing at the computer, talking and moving around from station to station to share ideas. The senior faculty who once told me, "Don't just have them working on their writing; teach them something," wouldn't be very pleased with the often chaotic appearance of my classroom.

The chaos continues as I assign the performance portion of our journey, the presentation. I am not a speech instructor, so my approach to presentation may be slightly haphazard. I review some basic rules of oral presentation and offer tips. Then I tell my students what I like to see. I like presentations that include images, sound and motion. I like to see concepts demonstrated. I like a visual (usually the web page) that lays out a clear structure for the presentation and, on occasion, I like a handout. Few of my students are technologically savvy enough to manage all of this in their twenty minutes at the front of the classroom, but many try.

We spend the last two weeks of class in this final part of the project. Those who present first are often still completing their essays and web pages. The early presenters understand that I take this into consideration; moreover, analyzing these somewhat incomplete projects is useful for helping those yet to present. At the completion of each, students (the audience) ask questions about and discuss the presentation then fill out an assessment and comment sheet similar to the rubric I use. These are given to the presenter.

When we're finished, students have brought together multiple and complementary modes in what I see as one advanced writing form. While we academics tend to value a thick, theoretical approach to writing research, my students and, I believe, students in general are looking for ways to better writers and for ways to make writing something other than the punishment it often is. This different, demanding, often confusing way to see writing is to them and me a kind of revelation, a new sense of what writing can be.

For a sample syllabus go here.