I appreciated Nic's organized style as he broke down into three distinct fields - Richard Lanham's career. As Nic talked about Lanham's expert witness role when he evaluated the validity of claims -plagiarism and intellectual property, I wondered if Lanham was an attorney, as I had thought this work was only carried out by lawyers.

On digital Literacy, Lanham seems to have joined the ranks of our recent authors from Computers in the Composition Classroom ( or visa versa) when he said that we should rethink digital literacy and pay attention to the needs of the students in this 'new literacy.' Similarly the CCCC Position Statement included the acceptance of technology as an asset in composing composition, but includes their own list of recommended guidelines.

Lanham speaks of face to face , and one on one as being the best education. and Ohmann airs his prejudice towards technological determinism and the claims that technology will transform the workplace and the home not to mention the school, and how parents and students are worried about keeping up with technological literacy. Yet there are more concerns - that some schools are not responding well to the new information age, and perhaps the computers are not being used to improve learning.

So with all that technology can do for students and businesses ( making money) there are questions posed about the future. Back to Lanham: He says the issue is not that we don't have enough computers or information, in fact we have too much information in this age of information and there is a struggle to get people's attention. The economy or the rhetoric of attention! how do we get the attention of our readers or students. We must be "well seen , well heard and well read . "

It would seem, according to Lanham, that one answer is style ( of rhetoric). He maintains that that the style of our composition is as important as content. He might say it is more important!
If there is a change in the font, the style and size of the words can cause the reader will stop to think what does this mean! Perhaps with graphics, and animation and other media mixed in, of course the right balance, then surely the style will say something to the reader and make her pause and think about the meaning. "Brevity, clarity and sincerity! Language should be expressive!" says Lanham.

Oh, and I love the Paramedic Method of Revision. Thanks for putting on your handout!