Advocates of the World Wide Web speak in glowing terms of its ability to provide greater access to information resources and to promote active reading and learning. Furthermore, students are now encouraged to construct Web pages, using hypertext as an alternative to traditional linear written documents. Although the ability to navigate the Web and to construct Web pages is not without merit, instructors who emphasize these skills are likely to sacrifice the stated objectives of most composition programs: to help students learn to write clear, coherent prose, to read critically and analytically, and to conduct meaningful research.
computers hypertext reading research writing World Wide Web
Most of us who teach composition are aware of the dramatic effect student access to the World Wide Web has had on their research procedures. Students who might have thought, even a decade ago, that the most natural way to begin a research project was to stroll across campus to the library, are now unlikely to leave their room to begin their search. The advantages of the Web over traditional library research are obvious and compelling. Not only do Web resources make it unnecessary to hunt through stacks of books or volumes of old periodicals, they simplify notetaking and the mechanics of data collection. Even if the search eventually leads to the library, most of us-students and faculty-will begin a bibliographic search on the computer in our rooms or offices.
Given the paradigmatic changes taking place in research strategies and information retrieval, it is no wonder many have spoken glowingly of the benefits of the Web for the teaching of composition. Textbooks and ancillaries related to Internet research seem to arrive at my office daily with titles such as Research and Documentation in an Electronic