INTERACTIVE WRITING

The Internet has converted many people to become prolific writers. “It’s easy to communicate across continents that people – who perhaps did not write regularly before – are now finding they correspond daily with friends, relations, business contacts, and strangers.” (p.6, Dorner, 2002) Technology has now allowed journal writing to be done on the web. This medium is known as weblog. Weblog is defined as:

“… a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically—like a what's new page or a journal. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly—from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction.” (Pyra Labs, 2000)

Weblog puts the latest entry always on the top and the older ones fall into archives. Most weblogs allow visitors or readers to interact with the entries by providing a comment form. Before easy- to-use template based weblog writing service providers like Blogger.com and Livejournal.com were introduced in 1999, only those who were good with html code can maintain a weblog. Now, even those who do not know html can publish their entries and update their journal everyday. They just need to sign up for a free weblog account and log in every time they need to update their journal. All they need is a web browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape) and a computer that is linked to the Internet. Free weblog service providers such as Blogger.com, Blogdrive.com and Livejournal.com have made it easier for non-IT individuals to publish journal entries and readers at large give feedback to entries posted on the weblog. For tech-savvy individuals, they might want to tinker with free open source software like Wordpress and Greymatter.

Weblogs provide interactivity needed to help students to use English by increasing the number of participants that can get involved in a discourse. As writers and readers, students can interact with the teacher, fellow classmates and the whole world. This also gives students the opportunity to even interact with native speakers of the target language. Entries are published for the world to read and react to. Readers of weblogs post comments in reply to entries. This leads to negotiations of meaning that might assist learners in developing their writing and argumentative skills. The use of English language can be taken outside the four walls of the classroom and beyond. It is hoped that teachers and students can embrace the technology available and turn it to something pedagogically constructive. Blood (2002) strongly believes in the power of weblogs to transform both writers and readers from passive consumers to active creators of web contents. Maybe, we are at the edge of a new revolution of interactive writing culture that calls for the voice of the masses and critical audiences.