A review of research on distance education in computers and composition

This article provides a review of the research published in Computers and Composition about teaching writing with distance-learning technology. The purpose of the article is to assess what research has been conducted in the context of a prominent journal in the field. Distance education is an emerging focus in the field of computers and writing, and the goal of this review is to provide a foundation for further analysis that begins to locate research gaps. I outline research published in the journal from 1994 (the date of the first article dealing with distance education in Computers and Composition) through 1999. Through analysis of twelve articles published in the journal during these six years, I describe two emerging categories of research in distance education: articles that theorize distance education in the context of writing instruction and articles that describe distance education in practice. In addition to describing the research already conducted, I include suggestions for further research that would build upon this foundation.