WRITE NOW: A DRAMATISTIC VIEW OF INTERNET MESSENGER TUTORIALS DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Douglas Kevin Dangler, M.A. ********* The Ohio State University 2004 Dissertation Committee Approved by Associate Professor Beverly J. Moss Associate Professor Scott Lloyd DeWitt Professor Nan Johnson ABSTRACT The advent of computer technology in the Writing Center has forced administrators, tutors, and clients to reconsider what they do and how they do it. The construction of a new metaphor for online interactions suggests better ways to interact online. To this end, this dissertation develops the idea of the Fluid Cyborg, a combination of the theories of Kenneth Burke and Donna Haraway, as a means to explain and anticipate online tutoring behavior. ii Dedicated to my best friend, Laurie: “Without whom, not” DEDICATION iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I cannot possibly thank all of the people who contributed to this project. I thank my parents, Ivan and Elaine Dangler, for among other things, hours of babysitting while I wrote and a model of how to make a marriage survive a dissertation. I also thank SBC, Inc., whose funding of the BSU Online Writing Center in the year following my data collection kept me focused on thinking about effective communications in online writing centers. I thank Kitty Locker, whose guidance was invaluable at early stages of this project. I thank the informal ABD writing group of Susan Williams, Theresa Kulbaga, Scott Banville, Dana Oswald, Laura Younger, Cheryl Hindrichs, and especially Jen Camden, to whom I am indebted for several invaluable turns of phrase. For my dissertation committee, I have nothing but praise, so thank you Nan Johnson (I’ll make a technophile out of you yet), Scott DeWitt, and Beverly Moss. My committee offered that most precious resource: exceptionally engaged readers and responders who forced me to reconsider practically every aspect of this project. Dr. Moss has my special thanks for taking on yet another grad student, one more disorganized, distracted, and heretical than most. Without your kindness, generosity of spirit, and (perhaps most important) constant encouragement, I would probably still be considering how I wanted to structure the first chapter. Thanks also go to the participants in my study, who were generous with their time and transcripts. I thank Evan and Becca Dangler, whose requests for wrestling and reading were always welcome diversions from academic work. Finally, I thank my best friend, Laurie Dangler. iv VITA 1969 ........................................................................................................ Born – Lima, Ohio 1992 ...........................................................................................B.A. In Chemistry/Biology University of Toledo Toledo, Ohio 1998 .............................................................................................................M.A. in English The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 1998-2000....................................................................................................Assistant Editor Chemical Abstracts Columbus, Ohio 2000-2001.....................................................................................................................Tutor BSU Writing Center 2001-2003.......................................................................................... Assistant Coordinator BSU Writing Center 2003-2004.......................................................................................... Assistant Coordinator BSU Online Writing Center FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................................ii DEDICATION..............................................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...........................................................................................................................iv VITA...............................................................................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES .....................................................................................................................................xi SETTING THE STAGE I: TECHNOLOGICAL DRAMA(TISM) AT THE WRITING CENTER ....1 My (Techno)Life, and Welcome to It......................................................................................................3 Research Questions ..................................................................................................................................5 Burkean Dramatism.................................................................................................................................7 The Pentad: Burke Lends a Hand..........................................................................................................7 Burke On(the)Line: “Can This Marriage Be Saved?” ..........................................................................9 Problems of Excessive Fluidity......................................................................................................................... 9 Dramatism Modified ....................................................................................................................................... 10 The Irreducible Ratio of the Interface ............................................................................................................. 14 The Socially Constructed Cyborg .........................................................................................................15 Social Constructionism........................................................................................................................15 Defined............................................................................................................................................................ 15 Burke as Social Constructivist ........................................................................................................................ 16 Online Tutoring as a Threat to Social Construction............................................................................19 Online Power, Collaboration, and Identity .........................................................................................20 Terminological Constructions .............................................................................................................22 God-terms ....................................................................................................................................................... 22 Terministic Screens......................................................................................................................................... 23 Consubstantiation and Substance .................................................................................................................... 24 Donna Haraway’s Cyborg...................................................................................................................25 The Fluid Cyborg.................................................................................................................................26 A Social Construction MOOvement.....................................................................................................29 MOO and MUDs............................................................................................................................................. 29 Rhetoric of Online Embodiment ..................................................................................................................... 30 Bots ................................................................................................................................................................. 33 Summary ......................................................................................................................................................... 33 Regrouping..............................................................................................................................................35 Looking Ahead........................................................................................................................................35 SETTING THE STAGE II: CONTEXT OF THE STUDY.....................................................................37 Big State University................................................................................................................................37 BSU Writing Center ...............................................................................................................................39 The BSU OWL........................................................................................................................................40 Historical Overview: Starting Somewhere ...........................................................................................40 Pre-study Attempts.................................................................................................................................62