Teaching Writing Online: How and Why

Teaching Writing Online: How and Why by Scott Warnock. Urbana: NCTE, 2009. 235 pp.

From my ten years of teaching writing online, I have found the information that Scott Warnock presents really works. Additionally, Warnock's book includes strategies and ideas that I have not yet tried but will. Teaching Writing Online consists of an important introduction, eighteen chapters, four appendixes, a glossary, a works cited section, an index, and an author bio. Each chapter contains one or more boxed guidelines (reproduced inside the front and back covers), relevant samples, and summation questions to help you apply the contents to your own situation.

In the introduction Warnock explains that he wrote the book because of a lack of material to help instructors begin teaching writing online. Warnock states, "This book operates from a premise that contradicts what many experts in online instruction have said about the transition to the electronic environment" (xiii). Instead of approaching online teaching as being "acute[ly] differen[t]," Warnock "believe[s] that you can approach teaching online more confidently if you view it as not being that different from teaching onsite" (xiii). Warnock further notes that "teaching online, like teaching onsite, is about recognizing your teaching talent zones or areas and finding ways to translate those talents to the teaching environment in which you are working" (xiv). In the remainder of the introduction, Warnock explains "how"...