The following examples from my own classes show both the successes and ongoing problems with public writing:

• Published PowerPoints (involving primary research): http://www.tusculum.edu/faculty/home/tolsen/html/volume.htm

• Wiki created to present textbook summaries and other information: http://servicelearningtusculum.wetpaint.com/?t=anon
  
  
• Published "white papers" from the same wiki: http://servicelearningtusculum.wetpaint.com/page/Research
  

• Traditional web page projects are easier for students; they are familiar with the format. See these projects on local history: http://www.tusculum.edu/cca/minorpages/mainstreetpage.html
  
  
• These pages move away from the traditional web page "look" and towards the model of an e-journal:
  http://mcavagrotti.googlepages.com/home (on violent media)
  http://sleonard6007.googlepages.com/home (on gender)
  http://absolutelynothing07.googlepages.com/home (on the effects of recycling)
  http://shuckaby73.googlepages.com/home (on ethnicity)
  
  

The PowerPoint format is the most successful in that once students were told not to use bullet points and to develop paragraph-length analysis on each slide, they were very successful.

Although building a web page is a complex task, students were more familiar with the structure of a web page and were reluctant to include too much writing. They could conceptualize the design of the pages and most of them contain short bits of information rather than sustained or cohesive, extended writing.

The Wiki and the white paper both suffer from formatting issues, which show that students are not entirely successful in conceptualizing the graphic look of the paper nor the way in which an audience would read their contribution.

The "white paper" is a very promising format, since many policy papers (governmental, NGO, and business) exist online for students to examine.

The "e-journal" format (for lack of a better term) is an interesting form because it combines web features with traditional paper writing. For instance, the paper on recycling includes a video as well as links. When I tried this assignment in a later class, I did not allow for enough time to complete the paper and deal with the online environment. Plus, I did not start them in the application--I waited until the end, which was a big mistake. They were not prepared to "convert" their papers. They had already dealt with a lot of formatting issues just using Word.