Writing Together: Ten Weeks Teaching and Studenting in an Online Writing Course

As more and more college writing instructors are asked to teach online courses, the need for practical, day-to-day advice about what to expect in these courses and how to conduct them has grown.

Scott Warnock, an experienced writing instructor and online writing instruction mentor, hears the questions constantly: What do I do each week that specifically constitutes an online course? How do students participate and engage in an online writing course (OWC)? Writing Together: Ten Weeks Teaching and Studenting in an Online Writing Course narrates the experience of an asynchronous OWC through the dual perspective of the teacher, Scott, and a student, Diana Gasiewski, who participated in that OWC.

Both teacher and student describe their strategies, activities, approaches, thoughts, and responses as they move week by week through the experience of teaching and taking an OWC. This narrative approach to describing teaching a writing course in a digital environment includes details about specific assignments and teaching strategies, with the added bonus of the student view. Through the experience of the student author, OWC instructors will better understand how students perceive OWCs and navigate through them--and how students manage their lives in the context of distance education.