Chapter Two
My Pursuit of Composition and Rhetorical Theory and Practice

By taking the threads of interest, I have begun to weave the tapestry of my story. I am not sure what story may be revealed, for the introduction to composition and rhetoric provides an important transition in my career as professional writer. Therefore, this chapter represents my transition into the world of composition and rhetoric. Within these pieces, my ideas about hypertext and its use in the classroom begin to blossom. I also feel that the pieces represented in this chapter reveal my shift towards education. In these papers, I was allowed to speculate on my ideas about teaching writing. I very much wanted to incorporate my ideas about hypertext theory into the projects I worked on in the composition and rhetoric courses. I found through my research and writing that there was much research to be done concerning the effects of technology and writing. I feel that these papers show how I am beginning to build an argument for the use of hypertext in the writing classroom. My ability to build this argument comes from issues and topics that I explored in two very important composition and rhetoric courses that I took: The Composing Process and Introduction into Literacy Theory. 

The first paper of this chapter, "Hypertext: Help or Hindrance? A Call for Research," looks at computer technology in the foreign language classroom. Because of my background in foreign language instruction, I was fascinated as to how our current technologies could help second language acquisition. This particular paper is a good example of how I began to try and integrate all of my areas of interest and/or expertise in foreign languages, professional writing and computer technologies. It is in this course and with this paper where I began to view this masters program as my own. Not only was I building on knowledge I had gained in the Computers and Communication course where I first ventured into the world of hypertext, but I was beginning to make, by integrating my other areas of interest, my own research niche in technology and education. 

The next course I took as represented by the next paper in this chapter also helped me to develop further my own personal interests and opinions about hypertext and teaching. Being introduced to Literacy Theory had an important impact on how I began to reshape my views on the importance of hypertext. Because of the theorists we studied concerning critical thinking skills and literate cultures, I began trying to make connections between the classroom and the use of hypertext. In this class, I wrote an impromptu response to what school literacy means. It is obvious that when I wrote this piece that these concepts had not yet become a part of me. Writing about what I thought about school literacy was a very important step in trying to understand and articulate such a complex concept. To quote from this piece: 

"From the readings and research I have done so far and from my own educational experience, I have developed a utopia-inspired vision of what I would like to see happen to school literacy. I must first say that I think visions are an important part of change. To cogitate on what could be or should be sets the wheels in motion for a difference to be made. This vision I see is one where reading and writing are ways of exploration and discovery. These are the basic elements that I believe can be instilled an enacted throughout the grade school experience. Of course, as the years go on, the depth and level of discovery will be deepened and enriched." It seems obvious to me that I was grappling with these nebulous concepts. I realized in this course that critical thinking is at the heart of creating educated, literate individuals. "Through critical literacy the differences of culture, gender and literacy styles of individuals could be explored and validated in the classroom, as Friere proposes." Knowing that these are awesome tasks in the classroom, I started thinking about how our current technologies could help develop critical thinking skills and hopefully literate individuals. And now, I felt as if I had an understanding of the weight of the argument that Dr. Stevenson proposed in her paper, "The Electronic Manuscript: Implications of Hypertext for Literacy." At the time I heard her paper, I really had no way of responding thoroughly or thoughtfully to her argument. But I realized that in light of my new knowledge from the literacy theory course that we as proponents of the English language should be very familiar with the current technologies and how they impact our classrooms and our students’ ways of thinking and doing. 

Therefore, in order to bring the literacy conversation to the hypertext theory conversation, I decided to explore two books on each subject. The second paper in this chapter, "Long Journeys Begin with Little Steps," is my attempt to bring together hypertext theory, through George Landow’s book, and social linguistics and literacy, through James Gee’s book. From trying to make these connections, my idea of creating an electronic writing portfolio came into being during this time. 

After the literacy theory course, I took a long break from graduate school. This time away to be pregnant and have my baby allowed me the freedom and space to explore some topics on my own. By the time I returned to graduate school, three quarters later, I had developed an interest in rhetoric. I read as much as I could about the subject. When deciding on my first project for the government writing course, I thought I should use some of the knowledge I had gained during my hiatus. The last paper in this chapter, "The Internal Revenue Service Website: A Review," represents my desire to look at the rhetoric of web page design with the hopes of understanding the potential for hypertext and the writing classroom. I had moved from creating a web page and discussing the process, as evidenced in the first paper, to dissecting and critiquing good web design from my knowledge about hypertext, writing and design in this last paper of Chapter Two. This paper also represents, as it is situated in this portfolio, the coming together of my understanding of composition and rhetoric theory and of my desire to explore effective uses of hypertext. 
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