Preface for Instructors

Many undergraduates enter their composition courses convinced, thanks to prior instruction, that rhetoric equals ethos, logos, pathos—full stop. Moving from that to a sophisticated understanding of digital rhetoric as a strategy, an analytical method, and a subject of exhaustive study takes work—and longer than a single semester. Students have a lot of processing to do, and applying the theories of rhet/comp demands even more of them. Digital rhetoric presents formidable challenges in an undergraduate classroom.

This book is here to help.

Designed as a supplement to, if not a replacement for, “Defining and Locating Digital Rhetoric” in Doug Eyman’s Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice and “Old Media, New Media, and Knowledge” in J. D. Applen’s Writing for the Web: Composing, Coding, and Constructing Web Sites—two excellent, comprehensive, and challenging texts—this new textbook presents key concepts in rhetorical studies from the perspective of students engaged in the early stages of entering the discipline and understanding its priorities. As such, many of the ideas presented in these chapters have a work-in-progress feel to them. The chapter authors are themselves working to make sense of the material as they construct the text.

This rough, unfinished character can be seen as a feature, not a bug. By presenting key concepts as a work in progress, this text’s student authors demonstrate how knowledge about digital rhetoric must always be constructed by individual scholars, encouraging readers to join in this process. To be sure, students in any section of Writing for Digital Spaces are encouraged to contribute to this living document, adding new perspectives or revising work from authors who came before them. We encourage you to reach out to Kean’s English Department office with any ideas for improving this book to best meet the needs of our students.