I designed a basic format which I asked students to follow. Along with links to their annotated bibliographies and argumentative essays, students had to include a graphic related to their topic, an abstract of their argumentative paper, the pros and cons of the issue presented in a bulleted list, and links to related Internet sources. In the case of this assignment, the subject had already been selected by the students, so their focus was clear. I think this is perhaps one of the most important assets of this assignment. As any writing instructor knows, audience can be the most difficult concept to get across to students.
Most students just think they are writing for their teacher.
However, since most of them are Internet consumers, they have been active members of the very audience to which they must appeal. Students understand that anyone with Internet access could potentially view their site, so they are much more in tune with the concept of audience. The instruction on completing the assignment was very structured. Since this class was already meeting in a computer lab, there was no need to schedule a lab. Each student used a Gateway 333 computer with Windows 95 and Netscape 4.05.