online writers community

online writers community

The Impact of Online Writers Journals on the Writing Community

1. Introduction to Online Writers Journals

As someone who has kept a journal on a consistent basis, Moore wondered if writers who utilize online journals derive the same self-knowledge from maintaining them as those writers who write in paper-bound journals. As she began to research online journal keeping, Moore found a substantial body of academic work addressing the potential therapeutic value for online diarists. Researchers in the Communication Studies, Information Science, and Medical fields have begun to determine if individuals who write in electronic journals might experience similar benefits as those derived from the traditional diary. Many of these studies found that Internet users feel freer to write more personally disclosing messages in an electronic journal or digital diary than they would using traditional diary modalities. In her survey of the literature, Moore found no academic research which specifically explored the impact of online writing journals on the individuals who maintained them. This gap in the literature created the space in which Moore could conduct her research.

2. Benefits and Challenges of Online Writers Journals

Just as with print-based publications, there are both benefits and challenges with publishing a contemporary online writers journal. Given the proliferation of literary magazines and writers journals, space limitations are no longer a major concern. Online venues can publish many more pieces or visuals than print-based journals with a fraction of the production and distribution costs. However, even submissions to electronic publications without print-based versions are still extraordinarily competitive. Unlike online submissions to large-circulation journals with their even smaller acceptance rates, internships in publishing and journalism are common for Mass Communications majors. Unfortunately, most English departments do not have a budget for editorial internships.

With the addition of the World Wide Web, not only has the number of available magazines and journals for writers increased, but anyone with access to the Internet now has the ability to manage a contemporary online writers journal. With this forum, studio instructors can provide both web and mobile application students with editing opportunities that other writing and literature courses have provided for decades. Online writers journals can also be online publishing venues for exemplary work created in lower graduation requirement writing courses.

3. The Role of Online Writers Journals in Fostering Community and Collaboration

In this section, the authors provide a rationale for the development of the journals, provide a brief literature review, and describe a model for collaboration. The notions of a local knowledge neighborhood, a discourse community of practice, or a social space for learning or collaboration, abound in real life and of late, in cyberspace. These labels form attempts to describe and explain the ways in which people choose to join, work, share, learn, or contribute in a collaborative virtual space. Researchers have long noted the importance of people contributing to a discourse community, have turned to journals to increase participation and engagement, and believe that they are a useful vehicle for conveying a personal voice, experience, and journey. They are a staple of writing classes and part of many cultures to keep in touch on a very personal basis. As a tool, the journal is a powerful medium for personal reflections, dialogue, introspection, and self-statement, and can support barriers against cognitive ambiguity.

Do online writers’ journals effectively support meaningful interactions in an epistolary manner that fosters relationships, community, and collaboration across global cultures? The authors have generally found that journals can be a successful tool that helps to construct relationships and foster participation in meaningful discourse. Several truly powerful relationships have formed between people. The party at the end of the pilot fostered fun and interactions. He received some good feedback and furthered his idea of email as a platform and a tool for storytelling. It also activated the potential of journals as a collaboratory for sharing experience and leveraging off each other’s work. As the authors move forward, they will need to continue nurturing the backend that supports the growth of the online journalists. Online journals will prompt us to write regularly, again, reminders that posts are due.

4. Case Studies and Success Stories

2) Usenet group rec.arts.sf.composition – This group hosts a lot of discussion and brain dumps by professional and non-professional writers of fantasy and science fiction. The group provides a supportive environment to exchange experiences and ask questions about the more arcane aspects of being a professional in this genre, e.g., the tax implications of different pay structures. While the response from the professional participants is not always enthusiastic, it is at least more begin.

1) Tangent, the Short Review Magazine – Tangent’s mission includes the provision of an information resource to writers and people in general interested in the short fiction field. As well as reviews, news, and directories of new and professional markets, they produce a Science Fiction Writers Deskbook that contains articles of interest to beginning and established writers of science fiction and fantasy. This can also be found on their website. Tangent can be found at.

There have been three other case studies or success stories, one specifically about writers’ journals and two about electronic writing communities. One of the journals is a mailing list, one is on Usenet while the other is a fully moderated list. All three are free services and are widely accessed by writers of science fiction and fantasy in particular.

5. Future Trends and Opportunities in Online Writers Journals

New software applications coming into the internet environment also have to consider the writing needs of the user. With writer support technology, the composition process is another area open for expert support needs. Features such as help in brainstorming new ideas; coaching in tone, voice, and fluency; reassurance about the appropriateness of word choice; development of sophisticated rhetorical structures; help in modeling an appropriate style, and help in creating an effective author-reader relationship are all areas that are open for OWJ to develop. In new ways, web writers share their work with the world, and they communicate their ideas in words. Writers can post their more polished entries and, in a similar manner, post completed works to be shared with a wider audience. Writers like to see what other writers are doing and also wish to receive comments and feedback on their work from other writers. The worldwide writing community should be enhanced by facilitating that interaction.

Online journals, writers, how will it be done, and when will it be done? Copyright, how will it be done? What are the future possible trends and opportunities of OWJs? The primary goal of OWJs is to allow writers to develop an online presence, allowing them to publish and communicate their thoughts and ideas to the world. The features of online journals available today are still in the infancy stage. With a few tweaks that need to be addressed to warrant their continued widespread use, there will be many added features. The features of OWJs are valuable for writers who are just beginning and also for mature writers, and their needs are different. The requirements of young, less experienced writers should focus on helping them to develop as proficient writers. The requirements of old, more experienced writers should emphasize helping them to use words better to communicate with others clearly. The current issues arising in university writing labs are the same issues that OWJ will have to address. These issues have helped university writing labs learn some valuable lessons.