The CEA Forum - SPECIAL SECTION: TEACHING AND TECHNOLOGY - FRESHMAN COMPOSITION AND THE INTERNET: RE-ASSESSING A PROBLEMATIC RELATIONSHIP

Oct 15, 2026

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The CEA Forum’s 2006 special section examines how the Internet reshapes freshman composition and argues that the relationship can hinder core teaching aims such as research skills, critical thinking, and effective writing. Using an instructor’s anecdote about a Charleston monument research assignment, the text shows students relying on shallow web sources, repeating copied information, and avoiding meaningful analysis of historical context and monument ideology. Despite occasional strong papers, results often reflect superficial research habits enabled by online access.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Special Section: Teaching and Technology

Freshman Composition and the Internet: Re-assessing a Problematic Relationship

Internet-Enabled Research Challenges

An Assignment Case Study: Charleston Monuments

Limits of Online Sources and Superficial Analysis

The CEA Forum Summer/Fall 2006: 35.2 SPECIAL SECTION: TEACHING AND TECHNOLOGY FRESHMAN COMPOSITION AND THE INTERNET: RE-ASSESSING A PROBLEMATIC RELATIONSHIP Terence Bowers For some time now the Internet has been part of our daily lives and has affected the way we teach academic writing and the way students study. Not only do we teach students how to evaluate Web sites, find sources in electronic databases, and navigate intelligently through cyberspace, but we also use digital technologies to expand the classroom: we answer students' questions by email, monitor online discussions, and post assignments on Web sites; we may also have students create Web pages and do online homework and other Web-based tasks. Clearly, the Internet has increased our contact time with students, enhanced our communicative capacities, and expanded access to information for our students and us. Yet despite such benefits, the relationship between the Internet and Freshman Composition is not all sweetness and light. Indeed, it is in many ways an unhappy relationship. To be blunt, the Internet is often an impediment, rather than an aid, to accomplishing our primary goals: teaching research skills, critical thinking skills, and writing. Given the pressure on faculty to incorporate new technologies into their teaching, now is a good moment not only to reflect on how the Internet affects the teaching of composition, but also to assess our relationship as professors of writing and literature to the electronic revolution taking place around us. Let me illustrate by way of an anecdote the problems that I—and, I believe, many faculty—have experienced in teaching students how to write a research paper in the Internet age. Last year I gave my students in Freshman Composition an assignment that required them to select a monument in Charleston, SC, to research it, and to write an essay that explained its meaning within the public space where it was located. I was initially delighted with this assignment as I thought it had several virtues. First, since the assignment prompted students to apply techniques they had been using in studying literary texts to another domain, it demonstrated the broader applicability of the kind of interpretive skills I had been teaching in the course [ 1] . Second, the assignment required students to think carefully about their main idea, audience, and purpose (all fundamental writing concepts) . Third, the assignment ensured that students would learn something about their city's history and encourage them to look at their surroundings in a fresh way. Since Charleston is a city that reveres its past—often uncritically—I also hoped that the assignment would spark reflection on how the past is represented, on what is selected (and omitted) for memorialization, and on what is ideologically communicated by public monuments. Finally, I thought the assignment would be a valuable learning experience in how to do research because it would force students to investigate the history of the monuments and explore the historical events and persons honored by them. Unfortunately, the results were disappointing. Though I did receive a few strong papers, on the whole they were weak primarily because they were built on a flimsy research foundation. I found that most papers relied on Internet sources, each typically consisting of less than two pages of text, and that the research came mainly from just one of those sources. I also found that the online sources often contained the same information (often in the same wording), as if one source had copied information from another, which had copied from another, and so on. So even though my assignment required students to use multiple sources, that requirement did little to broaden or deepen the research base of the papers. Further, though some Internet sources provided some useful facts, they lacked the detail or analysis that would allow one to gain a meaningful understanding of a historica

FAQs

What benefits does the Internet bring to teaching freshman composition, according to the text?

The Internet increases contact time, enhances communication, and expands access to information. It supports activities such as evaluating websites, finding electronic sources, and using digital tools for classroom work.

Why does the author argue the Internet can harm freshman composition outcomes?

The text contends the Internet often impedes teaching primary goals like research skills, critical thinking, and writing. It enables fast, superficial investigation and quick quotation collection.

What went wrong with students’ monument research assignments in the anecdote?

Many papers relied on flimsy foundations using mainly one or two short web sources with overlapping, copied wording. Students often avoided deeper analysis of historical context and the ideological messages embedded in monuments.

Oct 15, 2026

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