Digital argumentation - datorskrivandets transformering av skolans genrearbete

This article investigates how the use of computers with internet access transforms the conditions of writing in the school context. The case study focuses on a class in Swedish Upper secondary school (16 years old) writing argumentative texts that the students may send to a local newspaper for digital publishing. The video recorded work in one writing group is analyzed in detail in order to show how the group struggles with two sets of demands; on the one hand the well known demands of the school task is met (specified text length and text outline, etc.), and on the other the new demands of the public debate. By the use of Systemic Functional Linguistics the analysis uncovers how during the writing process the students interpersonally orient themselves towards different readers, sometimes writing just for their teacher, but sometimes for the readers of the internet paper. The analysis shows how their writing task quickly gets unexpectedly complex. As a consequence of the controversial proposal that the students want to publish, they need for strategic reasons to not “express their own opinion” as they are supposed to do according to the curriculum. They are also pushed by the situational context of public debate to not choose for the text they are writing the thesis argument outline recommended by their teacher. Instead they elaborate a pattern that makes their thesis a solution for a problem formulated in the introductory part. The study is a part of the research project “Text activities and the development of knowledge in school”, funded by the Swedish Research Council. / <p>Utbildning och lärande. Tidskrift</p>