Write Now: A Guide to Writing in the Media Age promises to be an exciting project for a couple of reasons:

First, we hope to produce and publish the book using a social space where materials can be shared and ideas tested. An Editorial Board will have access to materials while they are under development, taking on roles more collaborative than those of typical reviewers. Eventually, pre-publication materials will be made available online for courses wishing to use and evaluate the readings and assignments or even contribute materials to the project. In short, we hope to create a book development process that will actualize the benefits of collaboration and social networks. We have completed one collaborative review session and will hold others in the next few months. If you have an interest in participation, please contact us. For book developers, an archive of the first review session is available.

We also hope to create a text that bridges the divides between print and digital literacies. It is easy to say a book will cover both old and new modes of composition, but it is very challenging to write such a book. How much coverage of the visual should a book have? Should that coverage emphasize analysis or production of the visual? Should the coverage extend to other media? Film? Music? What role should digital materials play? And, how can we ensure that, while addressing new modes of composing, the book gives students solid instruction in research, argumentation, and academic discourse? How do we maintain and teach the values of print literacy in an increasingly digital world? Developing such a book requires a response to fundamental questions currently at play in the fields of rhetoric and composition. As a partial response to those questions, we are developing Web materials to help facilitate the composing of new media projects and supplement the materials in the book. If you would like to explore these materials, please contact us so you can get access to a demonstration site.

Daniel Anderson
iamdan at thoughtpress dot org
Prentice Hall Publishing