The Online Writing Conference: A Guide for Teachers and Tutors

Nominated for the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA) Outstanding Book award.

The Online Writing Conference: A Guide for Teachers and Tutors, is exactly the book that I-and others-have been waiting for. Beth Hewett manages in this brief volume to answer a carload of my questions and alleviate an equal number of my fears.

--Michael A. Pemberton
Professor and Director of University Writing Center
Georgia Southern University

Composition is going digital. The number of online writing courses in colleges across the country is increasing each year. How do we best teach writing over the Internet? How must our pedagogy change? Beth Hewett provides real and practical answers.

After years of online teaching and tutoring, Hewett shares her trade secrets and best practices. Grounded in current theory and research, her approach centers on building relationships, solving problems, and working efficiently. The book's problem-centered instruction uses mini-lessons and clear directions so that teachers and tutors can guide students toward improved writing.

Hewett covers a range of core issues, including:

• building trust
• assessing students' needs
• creating effective mini-lessons
• crafting helpful instructional messages
• formatting comments and modeling key strategies
• using time wisely.

The Online Writing Conference also provides a wealth of:

• actual one-to-one examples of online conferencing
• tutorial transcripts
• action plans for teachers and tutors.

Whether new or experienced, whether a teacher, tutor, writing program administrator, or writing center director, you will want this book at your side when your computer screen becomes your classroom.

Beth L. Hewett has been a leader in the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Committee for Effective Practices in Online Writing Instruction. A college-level writing instructor for more than thirty years, Beth is the author, coauthor, and editor/coeditor of multiple articles and books, to include Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction, Preparing Educators for Online Writing Instruction: Principles and Practices, Virtual Collaborative Writing in the Workplace: Computer-Mediated Communication Technologies and Practices, and Technology and English Studies: Innovative Professional Paths. Beyond online writing instruction, Beth s interests include using digital technologies to understand the characteristics of college-level writing, the public rhetoric of eulogies, and practical connections between postsecondary writing and the world-at-large."