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The Internet and persona
Although I've mentioned articles that talked about the downside of blogging with respect to academic search committees, Michael Bugeja in The Chronicle of Higher Education talks about how an Internet presence can aid one on the path to tenure and promotion:
"For better or worse, the Internet is playing a larger role in editorial decisions about books and in promotion and tenure evaluations. It is commonplace for external reviewers to Google Web sites or troll databases before rendering their decisions on behalf of publishing houses and institutions.
Search committees also are using the Web to evaluate the writing or scholarship of job applicants before inviting them to on-campus interviews."
The disagreement between the articles is only an apparent one. Those against blogging were against blogging that presented a less-than-professional ethos, while the article in favor of an Internet presence recommended establishing a professional persona.
Appropriate ethos is determined by audience, of course. What's interesting is that the job applicants were unaware of what was an appropriate ethos, even though they had a Ph.D. in their discipline.
Question: If such unawareness of audience is present at that level, then what level of audience awareness should be teachers aim at for first-year composition?
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