TEENLIT.COM: A DISCOURSE COMMUNITY OF ADOLESCENT WRITERS PUBLISHING ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

By

MARCELLA J. KEHUS

A proposal submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Ph. D. in Reading and Language Arts

1999

Oakland University

Rochester, Michigan

APPROVED BY:

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Chair                                                    Date

Dr. Taffy E. Raphael

___________________________________

Adviser                                                Date

Dr. Susan Florio-Ruane

___________________________________

Adviser                                                Date

Dr. John McEneany

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Adviser                                                Date

Dr. B. Joyce Wiencek

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Adviser                                                Date

Dr. James R. Gavelek

ABSTRACT

This research attempts to capture the essence of a web site as a publishing forum for and a discourse community of adolescent writers.  As a participant observer, this researcher uses naturalistic inquiry to study the participants' use of web site, TeenLit.com, and to build grounded theory from this case study.  In first examining the authentic purposes and audience for writing on this World Wide Web site, descriptive statistics are used to depict the visitor traffic to the web site as well as the functions for the writings submitted for publication and posted to a bulletin board.  Discourse analysis of this online bulletin board and a smaller members-only sub-community serve to demonstrate the characteristics of a discourse community on this World Wide Web site.  Lastly, this research examines the meaning of participation for members focusing on identity issues within the individual's publishing and participation on both public and private forums of an online community.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT......................................................................................................................... 3

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES..................................................................................... 6

Tables............................................................................................................................... 6

Figures.............................................................................................................................. 6