Abstract
As the audio essay enters academia in literacy instruction it has the potential of undermining some of the common values in Composition Studies. New media assessments often miss this impact by focusing on the image versus text dichotomy. The author conducted teacher research during the first semester of a first-year composition course in order to development an assessment tool that utilizes Walter J. Ong's description of secondary orality as a representation of the values of Composition Studies and helps ascertain whether audio essays are producing or encouraging informal language, participatory mystique, communal sense, concentration on the present moment, and use of formulas. Although audio essays did not seem to encourage informal language they seemed to undermine the quality of collaboration and community that may be expected when looking at them through the lens of secondary orality theory.