Online? Is There a [Web] Text in This Class?

Although we have moved beyond the understanding of text that Fish (1982) refers to in this story from his well-known text about reading processes, and have yet to move completely into the "Third Sophistic" that Vitanza (1991) speaks of, I think both discussions of textuality can be helpful as we seek to prepare students for the

rapidly changing contexts of writing, specifically within the context of the World Wide Web, taking into consideration the effects that technology has on our classroom practices. What I contend that we need in our technical writing classrooms at this point in time/change, this point of juncture/disjuncture between/among hard/soft texts, is a ParaRhetoric that allows us to function in the world of both written discourse (hard copy texts) and electronic discourse (online texts) as we re-vision our roles as technical communication teachers and students, as learners in a tech-web world, and as technical communicators.