Learning to Write Publicly: Promises and Pitfalls of Using Weblogs in the Composition Classroom

Our findings are based on a three-part study, involving questionnaire research, an examination of content on the student blogs, and interviews with instructors.

1. Pre- and Post-Blogging Questionnaires

The first research method involved asking students to report on their perceptions of and comfort level with writing online. Students were asked to address the same set of issues prior to the blogging assignment and again upon completion. The questionnaires elicited responses regarding students’:

• Prior experiences with writing online (e.g., creating websites, participating in discussion boards or listserves, using MySpace accounts, etc.)
• Perception of the public and private nature of online writing spaces
• Perception of the audience for online writing (i.e., who is reading their writing)
• Comfort level when writing online
• Sense of authority and responsibility for online content (i.e., understanding of the potential consequences for what they write)

We did not code survey responses based on individual responses, so were not able to match pre-survey responses with post-survey responses for each student. However, by comparing pre- and post-survey response trends across our sample we were able to note general patterns in differences in perceptions. (See Appendix A for the survey questions.)

2. Analysis of Blog Content

The second method of research relied on analysis of the class blog content. We analyzed student blog entries and comments, with particular attention given to any changes over time. We identified the following in posts and comments, noting differences between early blog posts (written during the first two weeks of the semester), mid-semester posts (written during weeks seven and eight) and later blog posts (written during the final two weeks of the semester):

• Whether students wrote to a public or private audience. Did students address only class members or a larger audience of Internet readers? Blog posts that we determined to be addressed primarily to class members contained references to “we” and “us” and “the class,” or included references to community-based knowledge, such as building names on the NIU campus or discussions held during class, without providing context.
• To what extent student writers anticipated responses to posts. Did students exhibit sensitivity to possible responses (and criticism) from readers of their posts? This was largely determined by whether students supported any claims they made in blog posts with evidence from class material or from other sources online. In addition, we also interpreted any questions posed to readers or requests for others’ ideas and feedback as an awareness of audience. 
• Level of interactivity. Did students interact with others online through linking, commenting, and responding to comments?

In addition to this qualitative analysis of blog content, we also created a dataset that offered quantitative information about comments made to the class blogs. This dataset allowed us to examine more closely the level of interaction among students participating on the class blog by calculating the number of comments made to blog posts, their frequency, and the quality of that interaction in terms of content. The quality of students’ interaction was based on a coding scheme that one of the researchers used to categorize each comment as:

• On-topic vs. off-topic with the post it responds to
• Supportive/friendly vs. hostile in tone
• Contributing new information/posing a new but related line of inquiry vs. contributing no new information (i.e., stopping at “I agree”)

As we coded responses, it became clear that because each instructor had differences in goals for his/her class(es), the blogs seemed to belong to separate genres and suggested different rhetorical situations, making such kinds of inquiry problematic (e.g., should we judge threads about baseball rivalries under the same criteria we judge threads about gender neutrality in the workplace?). Our analysis takes into account the genre of each blog and we tried to code responses accordingly.

3. Interviews

The final method of research we used involved interviewing the three instructors of the four classes that were part of our study. While we had frequent consultations with the instructors throughout the study, we did not solicit formal interviews until several months after the end of the blogging semester. At this time, we asked instructors to offer their reflections on three topics: 1) their pedagogical goals for using blogging in their composition class(es), 2) whether they felt these goals were met, and 3) the most and least rewarding aspects of the class blogging assignment. We were granted interviews from two of the three instructors.

The data gathered from the questionnaires, class blog analysis, and interviews revealed insight into the level of interactivity students engaged in on the class blogs, and whether students were aware of the networked and public nature of writing online and the potential consequences for such public writings as participants in the class blogging activity.