Teaching Composition Online: No Longer the Second Best Choice by Leslie Blair

This article describes some of the advantages of teaching online, namely, forcing students to improve their writing because they must communicate entirely online. Since writing is their only medium, students must learn to write in order to communicate with each other, the author claims, and helps the students to understand audience.

I think there is some validity to Blair's argument. Perhaps writing comes so naturally to me -- and talking as well -- that I don't see the difference between face-to-face community and an online one. I know that there are some people with whom I can chat more easily when I'm not looking them in the face, and this is more true for my newer relationships than my older ones. So perhaps for students who don't know each other well in a new classroom but are expected to build an intimate writing community with them before a semester ends, sometimes for subjects that are intimate to the writers themselves, the online community is a viable medium.