Re: email-tutoring

["David J. Coogan" <coogan@charlie.cns.iit.edu>]

On Mon, 3 Mar 1997, Sara Kimball wrote:

> I wouldn't want to rush into situations
> where we'd lose the best of the old ways or find myself enacting the worst
> of the old ways but with computers.  All those questions about "fixing"
> grammar that come to OWLs bother me, just as the questions we often get on
> our "grammar hotline" bother me, because we're put in the position of
> providing simple answers to complicated questions, and because often
> enough we're being asked to settle bets or confirm people's linguistic
> prejudices. Doing this over the Internet doesn't exactly quiet my
> professional doubts.

--> My feeling here, Sara, is that if those grammar hotlines and websites
bother you, don't do them.  In fact, though I have nothing against the
general premise that some people will find some online grammar info useful
or interesting, I do have a problem with OWLs that become, essentially, an
online handbook.  I mean, why should we invite that kind of
association between functionalism and the writing center?  What do we
have to gain?  As you noted in your last post, the
best part about the internet is that it fosters an *exchange* of ideas.
What I see in most OWLS is a dissemination of information.  That's a
completely different thing.  

Dave