The Affect of Writing on the Internet

This paper is a description of the development, objectives, implementation and results of an advanced composition course conducted on the Internet with IWE (International Writing Exchange) of the Helsinki University of Technology. The purpose of the course was to motivate students of English who were discouraged during the difficult IMF era in Korea in 1998. During the 90\u27s the majority of English Education majors at Pusan National University in Korea had studied and/or traveled overseas for extensive periods of time during their undergraduate career. But, in 1998 opportunities for overseas travel and study had been greatly curtailed due to IMF era-imposed austerity measures. Students were frustrated in their English study abroad plans, yet eager for overseas contact and direct communication with native English speakers. The first assumption of this course was that student motivation is increased through an international writing exchange on the internet. This enthusiasm results in a healthy quantity of work. In addition, the postings required by the program draw on a variety of rhetorical styles, thus providing students with practice in a number of modes. The second assumption was that internet English is the perfect scaffolding between spoken discourse and written discourse because it is more complex than spoken discourse, yet less complex than written discourse. Samples of student work are examined to illustrate these assumptions