Writing In & For Digital Environments

For the last decade, technology has warped our society into believing that it is apart of the natural order of things. It has become harder to remind us of the reality of the impact it has made across all aspects of our lives. There isn’t a day that goes by where I do not constantly check email, NPR news, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. On occasion I post or comment on one of these digital outlets and don’t normally think of how I may be perceived. Since it has become integrated into something of a second nature, the thought of my audience passes me by. After some long reflection and researching, I have become more alarmed that this perception of audience had surpassed my thought process. Moreover, the content that I was posting and how it would be perceived by this worldwide audience. In this essay I aim to speak to what it means to be reputable online, why it’s important, and how to pick out what is respectable while also striving to become a reputable writer. Good writing does not go unnoticed on the web and so it can be put to more use than just sharing through social media. Decent digital works from respected web authors can act as jumpstart for how we as readers online can help start to generate ideas to help solve social, political and economic issues right here at home and internationally.

Scholarly, Social and Technical

 To be taken seriously in the digital world, the back end of publication must be scholarly, social and technical according the Douglas Eyman in Composing for Digital Publication: Rhetoric, Design, Code. Scholarly refers to whether a disciplinary field values digital writing. Social is how a field behaves when implementing those values within the publishing process. Finally, technical is how systems support the perpetuity of scholarly and social infrastructures if at all. These three points relate similarly to the three points that Jen Rajchel presents about how to approach digital writing. The questions she poses are:

• Is this medium adding a critical lens to the design of my argument?
• Is this the audience I hope to be part of?
• What are the terms of service and do I feel comfortable with the kind and amount of information I am sharing?

Rajchel claims these questions provide a platform to critically assess the audience and allows her to expect interactions with that audience. Both Eyman and Rajchel take into consideration what most people, like myself, do not think about when constructing a piece of digital work. These kinds of values and standards are what create a clear dividing line between writer’s exhibiting digital literacy and writer’s that are dependent on instant gratification. Writer’s that depend on the audience also highly anticipate a response. This response is what drives them to write more and more without focusing on the desire to connect with the audience through a separate writing task that perhaps they spent more time on.

Yet, in order to reach that final step of a polished piece of work this platform that Rajchel is assessing must be created. It can also be broken down into three categories presented in Eyman’s article. He analyzes rhetoric, design and code to better understand the digital literacy development that may be lacking and how it can be incorporating as a part of foundations for digital writing. In Rhetoric, he argues that, “authors of digital writing need to ask themselves: is this work best presented in a more linguistically rich or visually rich?” Additionally he focuses on how the audience will make use of the writing or digital object; “usability speaks to the degree to which the users’ needs have been taken into account in the design of a text; and “usefulness” is tied to the disciplinary networks in which a text is designed to circulate.” He presents that it is not what design is but what design does that is important in digital writing. By this he means “design is a rhetorical function that plays an important role in each of the principles of rhetoric, mostly related to style but also of organization.”(Eyman) He defines code as being synonymous with grammar in that it is the framework that ties rhetoric and design by allowing interactivity. The aspect of interactivity allows the audience to feel connected to the work and also creates a connection between the reader and the author. The web by its nature is built on connectivity, so by implementing code into digital works thereby enforces digital works to be shared with anyone on the web.

Although digital literacy is important to becoming an established writer online, it is not the stand-alone factor. As Eyman and Rajchel denote, the consideration of the audience, design of the work and the amount of desired connectivity is to be included in digital writing pieces.

Resilient Writers Prevail

As a millennial I have discovered an empowering ability to create a “wallpaper of my life” (cite sarah murray) through social media. As technology has become more readily available, millennials have put themselves in the center a global network of communication. The placement at the center of the universe like everything else has its advantages and disadvantages.

Sarah Murray, a writer and journalist whose work focuses on sustainable development and the relationships among business/society/environment, best describes one advantage to this centered connectivity in that it has “created in many [individuals] a desire to help solve big global problems.” The best example I can think of is the blog, Humans of New York . What started out as collective map of New York’s inhabitants has transformed into a worldwide phenomenon. The photographer, Brandon Stanton, walks around New York City every day to take pictures of strangers and collects quotes and short stories from them. More recently, he traveled to Pakistan and photographed a woman who was protesting forced labor. After the initial post he set up an Indiegogo campaign to raise about $100,000 for the woman’s organization against bonded labor. Four days after the campaign had launched, $2.1 million dollars had flooded in for the cause just from a series of a few photos and the stories of hardship in Pakistan that has affected 4 million people.

Stanton’s efforts have earned him a level of respect online that has implemented the three requirements that Eyman presents. His posts are scholarly in that he values peoples stories and comments by posting them along side their photo. Most aren’t long and detailed but for the ones that he chooses to highlight, he doesn’t change the person’s words. Rather he directly quotes what they are saying showing that he is taking value in what they are saying. HONY is social in that it behaves in a unique way as Tumblr account, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It is like nothing else out on the web now. Finally it shows Eyman’s definition of technical in that it supports the continuing of scholarly and social infrastructures by relating posts to real world problems and having the ability to share that across social media outlets.

All of Brandon Stanton’s of the world pushing for worldwide connectivity in digital writing comes at a high price. Murray denotes that all the technology has brought along anxiety, stress and doubts. As Kim Wilkins, the author of Writing Resilience in the Digital Age, suggests,

“Rather than suggesting resilient writing stems from good time management, then, I suggest it stems from good writing habits. It is not strictly speaking our use of time that is the problem, but those ingrained habits that are impinging on writers’ energy and productivity. For example: booting up the computer leads to downloading email; struggling with a difficult sentence leads to opening Facebook; Googling a research question leads to Internet surfing without a time limit. Many of these habits arise out of an increasing insistence that writers develop a digital authorial identity or ‘platform’… the tools used to develop a platform can lead to distraction, anxiety, self-blame, and stasis: all of these are the enemy of resilient writing.” [Wilkins 68]

Wilkins suggests work ethic is what is driving the problems with digital writing. The anxiety and stasis is what creates a “clash of motivations: the intimate desire to create art; the public drive to sell that art” [Wilkins 69]. This is important to being a distinguished writer online because technology has added another platform for writers to build masterpieces of work however, it has taken away their tedious work ethic to focus on what is before them. In times of refocusing or reviewing a writing assignment an escape is presented to jump from one task to another by checking Twitter or Facebook.

This comes into play when you need to perform research for a certain project. When it comes time to type into the search bar on Google, realistically are you going to just type in the subject or will you automatically jump to Google Scholar? What’s the difference? Why does it matter? Well, there is a difference when looking at information on Wikipedia to PubMed, a database for biomedical literature. The difference is that the information on Wikipedia has been altered by anyone trolling the Internet. Where as the information on PubMed has been edited by established publishers and reviewed several times before actually getting published. The literature on PubMed has gone through a tedious process to create a true work of art compared to a 16 year old kid who is bored and wants to change the Wikipedia page.

I see that this is an extreme case in terms of digital writing however; I believe it drives the point home that dedicated work ethic pays off. Whether it be Brandon Stanton’s efforts to raise money for a woman featured in one of his photos or it be being published on a well-known biomedical database such as PubMed.

So What is it Going to Take?

             Now its clear what it means to be reputable online and why its important so how can a writer be sustainable in the sense of producing work that exhibits digital literacy without all the distractions of the web? But with technology and the web space always changing, writers online need to be able to evolve. At the same time, they must not lose their credibility. This is where core concepts of writing, in general, play a role in writing online.

Brian Carroll, the author of Writing for Digital Media, suggests 8 fundamentals that can spread across any medium and any audience. They are:

• Be brief
• Be precise
• Be active
• Be imaginative
• Be direct
• Be consistent
• Be aware
• Be concise

These fundamentals are good checks for sustaining good writing online and in general because they point out the obvious parts of the writing process we often forget. In thinking of what you personally read online, any piece that doesn’t exhibit these 8 fundamentals is not something you will be reading for long.

Carroll presents steps to getting the writing processes started so that you can engage the audience without losing credibility. First he suggests to create an idea or a purpose for writing. To achieve this he presents activities such as brainstorming, clustering and free writing. Next, map it all out with questions such as, what is/are the main points and who is the primary audience? The audience you hope to reach should impact the decision of the topic, tone, complexity, etc. Once these questions have been answered then a blueprint, or outline of the project can be laid out to see how the content is presented. Again, relating how design is important in not what it is but what it does for the writing and for the reader. Finally, he belabors the point of revision. As the importance of being credible online was highlighted above, Carroll’s final step strengthens the argument that revision is crucial in writing online. Editing allows a writer to create his or her own consistent style of writing. In turn, this is what can help writers online start on a path to becoming a sustained decent writer.

The opportunity to participate in academic digital writing  at Dickinson has provided an outlet to express some of my artistic abilities. Writing loosely is much like painting on a canvas in that with each brush stroke is free flowing. Almost all of the writing I do at Dickinson is very formal and directed toward the biology research community. In that kind of writing style, I don’t get to offer my opinion, everything is objective.

I have found that writing online about something I am passionate about has given me another way to define my identity online and in the Dickinson community. This has numerous advantages in and outside the classroom, especially at a liberal arts college. Implementing digital writing in courses allows for connections to be drawn between various disciplines. Which is what is emphasized at a liberal arts school. I have taken courses in areas such as Africana Studies and Philosophy that have allowed me to think outside the box for areas of study in Biology.

Activating a different part of your brain is a way to see and think in different ways. A liberal arts education encourages this notion. I believe we could all continue the efforts that Brandon Stanton started but on a much larger scale. However, in order for this occur there must be good design, strong connectivity to the audience and countless revisions. Piggybacking off of Stanton’s general idea of philanthropy for a greater cause from a single post can serve as a springboard for similar ideas to start to develop solutions for domestic and international issues.

Works Cited

Carroll, Brian, [1965-]. “Writing and Editing For Digital Media.” N.p.:Routledge, 2014. Africa-Wide Information. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

Eyman, Douglas, and Cheryl E. Ball. “Composing For Digital Publication: Rhetoric, Design and Code.” Composition Studies 42.1 (2014): 114-117. Education Research Complete. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

Johnson, Alex. “Humans of New York Raises $2 Million to End Forced Labor in Pakistan.” NBC News.  19 Aug 15. <http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/photographers-campaign-raises-2-million-end-pakistani-forced-labor-n412031>

Rajchel, Jen. “Consider the Audience,” in Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning, ed. Jack Dougherty and Tennyson O’Donnell (University of Michigan Press/Trinity College ePress edition, 2014) 

Wilkins, Kim. “Writing Resilience In the Digital Age.” New Writing: The International Journal For The Practice & Theory of Creative Writing 11.1(2014):67-76. Literary Reference Center. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

                            Photo via Got Credit

Education is an essential in the twenty first century. As many of my fellow college students know, it is extremely hard to get a job without experience or an education. So what does that mean for scholars? Or for those who want to get hired in a working position? It means finding an education that incorporates what is needed. And what is needed for jobs is getting increasingly different from the past as time goes on.

It used to be a big deal when someone could list proficient in Microsoft word or excel on his or her resume, now it is something that is implied. Companies want people working for them who are digitally literate. Becoming digital literate is not something promised to come along with earning a diploma but that might change soon.

The prestige Cornell University explains digital literacy to be this, “Digital literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet.”

This means that to be digitally literate you have to be able to interpret things online or even post things online, but most importantly know how to work technology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESSIcLO3Z_Q

Video found via YouTube

This is a big change from the past! Writing online is completely different than writing for other mediums. That is why a digital education is becoming a thing of importance. However this new age “bring your computers to class” idea is not presented flaw free.

There are negatives for the positives that a technology woven education can bring forth and these pros and cons can often be categorized within themes. One of those main themes is communication.

Communication is a positive because it is connecting people in ways that would never happen before, building new networks, giving access to tutors, connecting family through video instead of short broken phone calls, and even allowing students who might be too shy to talk in class add to the discussion through social media (Nel, Turkle, Rajchel).

For example in Sherry Turkle’s article “Alone Together”, She describes a situation where a young adult was able to video chat with her grandmother for an hour during the week instead of a 20 minute rushed phone call.

This kind of communication is a game changer. But it has negatives.

Turkle goes on to further say that despite being more connected with her grandmother the young woman often found herself multitasking while video chatting. The disconnection of this new communication method does provoke a lot of thoughts on how anyone utilizing this technology can remain present while having the ability to juggle tasks.

In addition some educators fear that communicating behind a screen or keyboard will lead to in class distractions and lack of focus (Nel). Now of course some students will fall to this and end up on Buzzfeed during class but there is an opportunity here for educators to open up the class to social media.

As John Pavlik says about integrating technology and social media into the classroom, “This Strategy to take advantage of many students’ natural inclination towards ubiquitous and often non-stop mobile device use. Rather than fight against the tide, so to speak, this is an approach to exploit it for educational benefit.”

That is very much what was done in a class Jen Rajchel helped with. In this class students had to write a “paper tweet” following the rules of Twitter but just write the 140-character snip-it on a piece of paper. The student wrote tweets based on some in class material and Rajchel reflected, “For the first time, everyone in class talked, and for the same length of time.” A demonstration of opening the class discussion to social media is very important, it begs educators to consider possibly using social media forms to continue the discussion or even just complement it.

Photo via MKH Marketing

But before educators can make these choices in classroom they have to learn the technology themselves. In a study done by Melanie Hundley and Teri Holbrook students studying to be teachers experimented with using multiple forms of media to create writing including a video essay.

Gif via Giphy

Many of the participants in the study felt they were a student again instead of becoming the educator. There also was an overall opinion that though social media and technology is a good tool for learning it would be hard to incorporate something with writing. However the study concluded that teachers should be given an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the media before teaching it.

The confusion of educators, unsure of where to incorporate social media is not a small opinion. In a paper about social media incorporation to a university in Southern Africa multiple professors responded that they wanted to incorporate social media into their teaching but either did not know how, thought it might be too time consuming or could not find what they were looking (Nel). Despite these speed bumps many teachers did try to incorporate media anyway and were very pleased by the development of communication and academic interaction online (Nel).

Furthermore, media in the classroom often presents itself as a coin, there is a heads and there is tails. More often than not gambling with media has gotten educators a positive response and it has gotten students skills in digital literacy that they will need now and in the future.

I find myself in the same heads or tails situation with my own education and digital integration. My writing for digital environments class is the first class I have taken that has addresses my own digital literacy.

It has been great.

I find myself reading, writing, and acting online differently than I did before I took this class. Of course prior to the course I knew how to start a blog, how to tweet, and had multiple social media accounts but I felt all of that was completely separate from my education a college.

Since I’ve started this class I am able to use websites other than just scholarly journals and identify if they are trustworthy or not. I can also write better online and read blogs easier since now I can relate them to things I am learning.

Of course there are things I don’t like, for example learning how to write this web essay was a challenge. It is completely new style of writing for students who have had the formal essay format preached to them since the 7^th grade.

I also find it a bit harder to go from reading web articles to scholarly papers that are not written to draw readers in. This is more of a personal downfall rather than something I would blame on having digital media in my class.

The only other negative thing about have such a digital classroom is that I tend not to take notes as much. But that is a positive hidden within a negative because frequently I am so caught up in the conversation happening in front of me I don’t want to take notes for the sake of not missing a part of the class discussion. This is where I think having an online conversation to complement the class talk would be super helpful and also just open the discussion further.

I think course like the one I am in, about writing in digital environments, are important because I thought I knew all I needed to know about writing and reading online and using technology in my education. Then I took this course and now I am learning something new everyday.

GIF via Giphy

The things I am learning are super important too because I already know I am going to use them in future courses I may take and future employment opportunities.

Digital media is part of almost every company, organization and so forth. Even Mr. Clean has a Facebook and I bet the person who runs that page had no idea they would end up having to write Facebook posts for a cartoon man who makes cleaning products.

In a time where digital literacy and education are still trying to figure out their footing and how they can mix together to provide better education, knowing that I can tell future employers that I have taken a course in writing for digital environments, that I know how to make, design, write, and run a blog, is very reassuring.

I know that despite some roadblocks, like not understand how to break from formal writing mode, my experience with digital media and education is a positive one. My experiences make me suggest taking a course that integrates the two to my friends because I think soon enough, everyone will need to have a digital education to complement what they already know or are learning.

Sources 

Holbrook, Teri, and Melanie Hundley. “Set in Stone or Set in Motion? Multimodal and Digital Writing with Pre-service English Teachers.” Journal of adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(6). March 2013, web October 15^th, 2015.

Nel, Liezel, and Patient Rombe. “Technological Utopia, Dystopia and Ambivalence: Teaching with Social Media at a South African University.” British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(3). 2015, web October 17^th, 2015.

Pavlik, John V. “Fueling a third Paradigm of Education: the Pedagogical Implications of Digital, Social, and Mobile Media.” Contemporary Education Technology, 6(2). 2015, web October 15^th, 2015

Rajchel, Jen. “Consider the Audience” in “Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning.” Ed. Jack Dougherty and Tennyson O’Donnell. (University of Michigan Press/Trinity College ePress edition, 2014) web October 5^th, 2015.

Turkle, Sherry. “Alone Together.” (Dis)Connecting in a Digital Age, pg 85-95. No date, PDF web accessed October 12^th, 2015.

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The Internet has forever changed the way we live our lives. This is especially prevalent on college campuses, where you can’t walk by a group of students without seeing at least one person looking at their iPhone. I don’t think I could even name one person I know that doesn’t own a laptop and cell phone. We are in constant communication with one another, and connected to social media on a daily basis, if not an hourly basis. If something happened to me during the day I can immediately tell my friends about it in a group message and feel connected to them, even though I may not have seen them all day. We can quickly Google something we need to know, check a menu online to order takeout, and even check what is for dinner in the cafeteria at college. We now live in a digital world and its impacts range from our social lives to our academic lives to our professional lives, and we must learn how to adapt to the new rules of this new world.

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What is digital literacy?

While the definition of literacy is the ability to read and write, but this definition has changed as the digital world has developed. In his article Digital Literacy, Richard Lanham explains, “the word ‘literacy,’ meaning the ability to read and write, has gradually extended its grasp in the digital age until it has come to mean the ability to understand information, however it is presented” (Lanham “Digital Literacy”). Today, this means that most information we will encounter is multimodal. Articles online can have pictures and videos as well as links embedded within the writing.

To be deeply literate in the digital world means being well seen and well heard as well as well read, skilled at deciphering complex images and sounds as well as the syntactical complexity of words (Lanham “Digital Literacy”).

Lanham expresses the importance of students in todays age to be able to not only read words and understand their meaning, but interpret the multimodal aspects of digital information into the meaning of the writing as well. This type of writing allows for a broader interpretation and understanding of the ideas. It can also make online reading more enjoyable for the reader, as the multimodal aspect can break up the redundancies of reading text.

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What does this have to do with academics?

The importance of technology in education is paramount in today’s day in age. Because young people who are being educated right now grew up with technology, it is very familiar to them, and they have a better understanding of its many facets than the majority of older people. This should be used as a helpful tool.

In her article Using Digital Story Projects to Help Students Improve Reading and Writing, Hani Morgan explains:

Using technology effectively in school has many benefits. It keeps students motivated, helps them function well in their digital world, promotes academic gains in literacy, and facilitates the learning of a subject matter because technological tools allow students to perceive and create content through various formats including graphic images, audio, video, music, etc (Morgan 20).

An example of useful technology for teaching is Smart Boards, which are interactive whiteboards connected to a computer. Students can write directly on a webpage that is projected on the board, and it is a way to get students more involved in a discussion or activity. Another example of this type of useful technology is Google Docs, which allows multiple people to edit different types of documents from different computers, at the same time. This allows students to interact intellectually, and share ideas in real time even if they are not together in a classroom. The more that technology is included in an academic environment, it the more important it becomes to educate students on digital literacy, and what is really means to write online.

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Suzanna McKee-Waddell supports the importance of digital literacy in her article Digital Literacy: Bridging the Gap with Digital Writing Tools, and describes, “Digital literacy is an emerging field of progressive literacy instruction…Teachers are seeking inventive forms of digital technology instruction to enable, engage and propel instruction in composition” (McKee-Waddell 26). This being said, digital literacy is not just a new field for students but also for teachers, and the teachers need an education in technology in the classroom. McKee-Waddell continues, “Simply stated, educators should engage and embrace student’s technological knowledge instead of allowing old avenues to constrain the medium of instructional delivery” (27). Right now, in most cases, the students in a classroom know more about technology than the educators do, simply because they have grown up with it. Because technology is changing so quickly, educators must have an open mind to learning about the digital world and how it can improve their classroom.

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But, the Downsides

The benefits of technological advances in the digital age are countless, but these do not always come without consequences. As Neil Postman states in his article Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change, “for every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage. The disadvantage may exceed in importance the advantage, or the advantage may be well worth the cost” (Postman 27). For example, Facebook has many advantages, such as being able to connect with friends and family far away, or update people on important events you wish to share.

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But a downfall of Facebook that you may not have originally considered is the information and pictures other people can post without your approval or knowledge, which could have negative affects on your relationships or professional life. While people may not have thought about this possible downfall when they began using Facebook, it is something people have to be conscious of. A more widespread comparison that Postman presents is cars, “think of the automobile, which for all of its obvious advantages, has poisoned our air, choked our cities and degraded the beauty of our natural landscape” (27). While this is a very broad example, it is a form of technology, and it does have serious downfalls. There are also downsides to technology in the classroom, as they can serve as a distraction for students who are checking social media on their phones or texting.

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A New Way to Cheat?

The concept of plagiarism has been widely accepted since writing became a profession in the 17^th century, but the concept now has broader dimensions with the new digital age. In a New York Times article Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age, author Trip Gabriel writes about how students conceptions of plagiarism do not include technology. He starts off with a few examples:

At Rhode Island College, a freshman copied and pasted from a Web site’s frequently asked questions page about homelessness – and did not think he needed to credit a source in his assignment because the page did not include author information…At the University of Maryland, a student reprimanded for copying from Wikipedia in a paper on the Great Depression said he thought its entries – unsigned and collectively written – did not need to be credited since they counted, essentially, as common knowledge (Gabriel “Plagiarism Lines Blue for Students in Digital Age).

These are examples of the discrepancies students now face in school. With the wide range of online sources students can use to write papers and do research, it is not always clear to students what needs to be cited and how. Instead of just having to cite from books in a formulaic manner, students must now know how to cite from a blog post, or a review from a website.

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In an article published in The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Lea Calvert Evering & Gary Moorman discuss the complex and evolving concept of plagiarism. They explain, “With the vastness of the digital world, plagiarism is difficult to define and continuously evolving. Although plagiarism is clearly an academic issue, the proliferation of digital media with which students interact daily and the growth of the Internet as a source of information have made it a literacy issue as well” (Evering & Moorman 37). It is difficult for students to understand the do’s and don’ts of plagiarism in today’s digital world. It is something that needs to be incorporated into education so students are able to uphold respect for intellectual property.

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My Life and the Digital World

The digital writing course I am currently in has had a positive impact on not only my other courses this semester, but my writing as well. This course is structured very differently than any other course I have taken. It encourages me to write in a creative way, and to reflect on my thoughts and ideas and connect them back to my writing. Outside of the blog projects we are doing, we keep a journal, and do different exploration exercises. These exercises have us write down our observations about different things, and then reflect on these.

Our blog projects have given me an outlet to write about a personal experience that I am passionate about. I chose to write about my traveling, and reflect on the experiences I have had. I have gained not only a valuable skill in learning how to blog, but I have gained confidence in my writing overall. I have learned about myself as a writer, which would not have happened in a typical structured course. As a science major, I have learned to write in a formulaic manner with no room for self-expression, which is very different than writing a personal blog.

The experiences I have gained through digital writing will help me in my future career, hopefully in the biomedical field, as I will have a better understanding of how to share my ideas and research in the digital environment. So much information is being shared on the Internet and having the skills to contribute to this in a valuable way will make me an invaluable asset to my future employer. The importance of digital writing is growing, and my developing skills in digital literacy will help me through my academic and professional careers.

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Works Cited

Evering, Lea Calvert and Moorman, Gary. “Rethinking Plagiarism In The Digital Age.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 56.1 (2012): 35-44. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Gabriel, Trip. “Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Aug. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

Lanham, Richard. “Richard Lanham: Digital Literacy.” Richard Lanham: Digital Literacy. Scientific American, 1995. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

McKee-Wardell, Suzanna. “Digital Literacy: Bridging The Gap With Digital Writing Tools.” Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin. 82.1 (2015): 26-31. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Morgan, Hani. “Using Digital Story Projects To Help Students Improve In Reading and Writing.” Reading Improvement 51.1 (2014): 20-26. ERIC. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Postman, Neil. “Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change.” Colorado, Denver. Lecture.

What does it mean to be living in a Digital World?

Imagine driving to work or school and realizing halfway to your destination that you left your phone at home. That feeling of being lost without it, loneliness, and a sense of detachment from society is universal in today’s culture. Engineers and the masterminds behind Apple and other companies are starting to romanticize technology. As stated in Sherry Turkle’s article, “Alone Together,” we feel as though we have actual relationships with our devices as they are “romanticized” and “inseparable” from our daily lives. She further explains how networks are becoming seductive; they are pulling us in with multimodal aspects leading us to click away at different links and never escape the four edges of our screens for hours.

The digital world and digital writing is becoming more accessible and influential in educational settings. On college campuses, we, students and professors, have new tools and mediums for learning, teaching, writing, expressing ourselves, and being creative. Our digital world is multifaceted and evolving which transcends to the progressing roles and structures of classrooms, teachers, and students. The collaborative, multimodal and democratizing aspects of digital writing sparks student motivation and engagement as new roles and teaching methods are introduced and practiced which allow students to gain rhetorical skills necessary for success in this fast growing digital world.

What actually is Digital Writing?

With easy access to computers, tablets, phones, and the Internet, we each have an equal amount of power to create a voice and express ourselves with the tool of digital writing. Digital writing, is writing written specifically for the web. Although digital writing is relatively new with new technological advancements and social media platforms, the idea of implementing technique with the practice is the same as traditional ways of writing.

What does it mean to be a “good digital writer”?

To be a good digital writer means that you understand the techniques that are effective on the web. To be effective on the web means that you:

1. Engage with the audience with your voice and presentation through text and multimodal features (videos, photos, links, colors, layouts, etc.)
2. Be familiar with other platforms so you are able to link specific audience with your own (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.)
3. Don’t be afraid to take chances (be creative, express yourself by taking risks over and over again to get a final product you are happy with)
4. Own your voice online (digital writing gives you power and access to other conversations and authors that you never had before, so engage with them! (comment/like/subscribe/write)

Before taking a course in Digital Writing this past semester, I used to use the Internet passively. I would scroll through nonsense simply to avoid awkward eye contact with someone, or just be on Facebook just to be there; not knowing why. But through this class I’ve learned that digital writing gives you opportunities that shape your writing that have never existed before, ultimately giving you more power as a writer.

How is Digital Writing Used as a Pedagogical Tool?

Now, more than ever before, we are able to engage with our community, build our own networks, express ourselves and be creative all in an inclusive learning experience. As technology is shifting from flip phones to smartphones and tablets, so is their use and influence in classrooms and the educational experience. Digital writing creates a world of collaborative knowledge between the students and the teachers. Together, they face the pros, cons, and opportunities of the new digital world.

Here are some influences that digital writing has and is making in classrooms and the educational experience:

Digital writing in classrooms upgrades methods of teaching and classroom dynamics to help students develop digital literacy. Suzanne Mckee-Waddell’s article states that with digital writing, the role of the classroom, teacher, and student shift.The classroom is more of an inclusive learning experience where students are able to work together, listen to each other, and collaborate with the help of technology and social media platforms. As technology evolves, so must pedagogical practices. As students are more distracted, fast paced, and technologically advanced, teachers need to be able to engage, and in a way, entertain their students with new platforms. The article includes a chart of new programs that are used for that very reason and some of those include, GoogleDocs, Essaypunch, Easybib, and Wideo. New platforms like these allow the classroom to be more of a group learning experience while being part of a bigger conversation outside of the classroom. Students are able to continue conversations and the creation of ideas outside of the classroom with peers as we have access to tablets, phones, computers at all times and are able to engage in material at any time; whereas before, that was not a viable option for students. Using Twitter and WordPress and similar platforms engage, motivate, and enhance the classroom writing environment, without losing interest or motivation from the students.The same shift occurs for teachers, teachers are now introduced with new methods of interacting with students. They no long have to carry “red pens” and mark papers when they are handed in. Instead, tools like Trackchanges on Word and emailing makes it easier for students and teachers to interact and get feedback. Ultimately, the new roles and settings of classrooms reinvent the methodology used to teach writing. It focuses more on enabling and engaging both the student, the writer, and the audience.

1. The use of social media is introduced in classroom settings in our digital world which also increases the use of digital writing in class. Dan Åkerlund’s article supports the idea of social media in classrooms and also explains that when introducing social media to a classroom setting, students become more engaged, motivated, and creative. Social media changes the relationship between students’ own produced texts and the school subject that is studied. When a student is able to use personal photos or stories or links to pages they are interested in or have created, they have a sense of ownership which makes their work more authentic and personal. Digital writing with social media allows students to be motivated to share their ideas not only with their class, but to a larger public. Once the audience is bigger, students feel more motivated to be creative and engaged in their world. Social media is there to provide an outlet for their work to be seen. This addition to the educational process also adds a new role of the teacher as they are responsible to teach students copyright laws and how to be private/public on the net and how to handle sensitive information. Classrooms benefit from this aspect of learning as students are able to learn about the power of the internet and social media platforms, combine personal/authentic images and stories to their writing which makes them a more rounded, and creative (multimodal) writer through digital literacy.
   

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2.  Digital writing creates a new sense of “audience” that motivates students to do their best. In Åkerlund’s article and Jen Rajchel’s article, there is proof that there is a change in writing, for the better, when an audience changes for the author. Digital writing shifts the audience of a paper or writing piece from just the instructor to the entire web. She states, “When students feel an increased level of investment in their projects and a heightened sense of responsibility to an actual audience, the work becomes less about grades and more about shaping their scholarship.”   Rajchel’s article explains that when writing for a public audience, the writer is inspired to write the best they can, knowing that their work will be broadcasted; adding pressure to the writer and their ownership of their work. Digital writing disjoints the traditional role and pressures that a teacher has on a student as they no longer are the only ones reading or having access to their work. This idea introduces the double edged sword aspect of digital writing in classrooms and in general. There are some dangers brought by digital writing, which are introduced in Roxane Gay’s article. You have to think about what you say, how you say it, and the fact that it’ll be there forever. She states, “The vulnerability of online exposure is infinite. The internet is permanent as it is ephemeral. Everything is archived somewhere, lurking.” Digital writing makes you more of an aware writer as you have to think before you write something, knowing that your words and posts will always be traced back to and related to your persona. Although sometimes this aspect of writing online makes you hesitant to provoke a conversation or state your opinion, but those are risks you as a writer have to make.
   

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 My Experience with Digital Writing

            As a 21 year old student, I’ve been involved and exposed to many digital writing environments and have had a lot of experience with digital media, writing, and social networks. With a Facebook account, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Portfoliobox, and WordPress account, I’ve had a lot of practice with different digital platforms. As an International Business and Management major at a liberal arts school, I have had numerous amounts of group projects and could scroll for what seems to be forever in my GoogleDrive at previous group projects I’ve done for classes. Digital media and writing is extremely important in the marketing and business world; a career path I am most interested in. Being able to be creative while informing customers and the market about a good or a service is more important now than ever before. We are constantly being thrown at with ads online, with social media campaigns, and hashtags. All of these new concepts of marketing and creativity spark from our efficiency in digital writing and the use multimodal aspects of the web.

Although these new ideas and ways of branding and marketing are new and creative and have more of a sense of ownership, they also have higher stakes to fail. For example, when abroad in Copenhagen, my digital marketing class was assigned to present a campaign to the DIS buddy network program to the head of PR at DIS. My group and I collaborated on Google Doc and Prezi which allowed us to present to a larger audience, ultimately making more room for criticism. However, being able to use these tools effectively and be able to convey a message in just a simple hashtag and logo that catches on to millions of people, we are able to create a larger conversation and gain more credibility and awareness.

(logo and bike seat we created with link on it to promote awareness and access to campaign)

These skills are especially important for us, students, to nail and perfect before getting hired for jobs as employers are looking for people who will be able to enter the fast and technologically integrated world. Jobs like Social Media Manager and positions in PR are more important and fast growing than ever before; and with classes that integrate digital writing and digital skills are those that will produce the best candidates.

So, the next time you find yourself driving to school or work and realize you left your phone at home, don’t panic. Sometimes you have to disconnect from the networks and conversations had in the virtual world and appreciate those in the physical world. Balancing both will allow you to integrate your ability of being alone and “alone together” in this digital world.

Works Cited:

Åkerlund, Dan. “Social Media in the Classroom Different Perspectives on Young Students’ Use of Blogs and Digital Cameras in Their School Work.” Social Media in the Classroom (n.d.): n.p (2011). Web. <http://klassbloggarna.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/%C3%85kerlund-Dan-2011-Social-media-in-the-classroom-T%C3%B6nsberg.pdf>.

GAY, ROXANE. “The Danger Of Disclosure: Cultural Criticism Online.” Creative Nonfiction 49 (2013): 58-61. Humanities Source. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

Jen Rajchel, “Consider the Audience,” in Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning, ed. Jack Dougherty and Tennyson O’Donnell (University of Michigan Press/Trinity College ePress edition, 2014), http://epress.trincoll.edu/webwriting/chapter/rajchel.

Mckee-Waddell, Suzanne. “Digital Literacy: Bridging The Gap With Digital Writing Tools.” Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin 82.1 (2015): 26-31. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

Rajchel, Jen. “Consider the Audience.” Web Writing: Why & How and for Liberal Arts Teaching& Learning. 15 September 2013. Web. 3 Oct. 2013.

Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. , 2011. Print.

We often think of blogging as the work of the amateur cook, the dog lover, the awestruck student abroad, or the good samaritan building homes for earthquake victims in Haiti. They are known to have value, but their value is limited. They are written by amateur writers; fun little collections of literature for family, friends, and the occasional stranger. And in thinking all of this, we fail to see the possible value writing online has for students and educators.

http://hollywoodmomblog.com/dog-with-a-blog-renewed-for-season-3/

Blogging, in its current form, covers nearly every corner of the internet and beyond, incorporating the past and present, the far and wide, cooking, dogs, sports, music, love, hate, apathy, and abroad experiences. Its value is not limited. In fact, the inherent social aspect of digital writing (a more nuanced word for blogging) is what makes it limitless. Digital writing manifests itself in many forms; as literal blogs published through free web services such as WordPress, as posts on social media, and as blogs published through larger media groups such as CNN, ESPN, and the New York Times.

My current Twitter feed. Not a whole lot of discussion, but some interesting points.

Digital writing as an act is more than putting together words on some sort of platform and pressing publish. In her talk Networking the Field, Kathleen Fitzpatrick defines writing on online platforms as “scholarly communication,” in a broader context than would otherwise be available. Digital writing has become a means of engaging not only with scholars immediately available through traditional methods of information-sharing, but with anyone, nearly anywhere. As she states, “the blog…provides an arena in which scholars can work through ideas in an ongoing process of engagement with their peers.” Consider this in the context of student work; professional scholars (professors, writers, politicians) have been given the opportunity to engage with their peers through university networks and personal relationships for years, yet students have not been afforded this intellectual luxury.

Now, with the availability and ease of digital writing, students can engage in this same scholarly engagement with each other. Fitzpatrick also emphasizes digital writing as an ongoing process; a continuous process of practicing and presenting that contributes depth and understanding to work at a more constant rate than before the advent of the blogosphere. A perfect example of this is Twitter, which allows users to instantly present (short) arguments, and within minutes receive feedback, criticism, and suggestions. 

Jen Rajchel agrees with Fitzpatrick’s idea that web writing is “inherently about seeding the development of more opportunities to circulate student work while still foregrounding the difficult navigation of the public/private that accompany them.” In our current age of sharing and over-sharing, it seems trivial to speak about navigating the intersection of the public and private spheres that exist on the web. Yet these separate, and linked, spheres shape our identity equally. Digital writing is not only about the ability to publish and discuss at ease; it is about shaping yourself in a context that places you in the eyes of an audience. How might you interact with that audience? How does your audience take and digest what you say, and how do you do the same with their work? As Rajchel writes, “When students feel an increased level of investment in their projects and a heightened sense of responsibility to an actual audience, the work becomes less about grades and more about shaping their scholarship.” Rajchel is speaking about the level of depth that young scholars’ work can have when they understand the importance of creating a dialogue. An audience, hosted and sustained by the immense digital writing sphere, creates a sort of accountability for young writers and promotes reflection.

http://www.albertpalacci.org/tag/online-audience/

Linked to this idea of audience is what Natalia Cecire describes as “thinking in public,” a way of taking academic thought and placing it into the broader public sphere. Digital writing is an act of creating “theoretically supple ways to answer questions that we seriously want answered;” and act of linking small details and ideas to larger ideas as part of a community of authors, scholars, students, and readers. Cecire also emphasizes the importance of being somebody when you blog, as an act of public recognition of your place in the arena of digital writing. She says this as a professor and scholar, but the sentiment can be applied to students as well, and links to Rajchel’s idea that publicness leads to accountability (indeed, Rajchel cites Cecire in her essay). Implicit in her essay is Cecire’s idea that being public online as an academic, an especially trying position for women, is a form of academic progress; digital writing is both an expression of scholarship and and expression of your value as a scholar.

In his essay Organic Writing and Digital Media: Seeds and Organs, Pete Rorabaugh advocates for a sort of scholarly composition that sheds formula and instead attends to planting the seed of a composition and writing in unpredictable directions using that seed. That does not mean that the piece of writing is inherently messy or confusing; it simply means the the process of writing is not structured like high school teachers might have us think. Instead, it is paths that converge to create a cohesive whole. Rorabaugh focuses on the digital medium as having the capacity to facilitate this organic style, stating,

“[o]rganic material and compositions move through particular stages with a goal in mind, but the process takes precedence over the product. Using the digital landscape to frame academic composition allows us to attend closely to that process and encourage research fluency and critical inquiry.”

By this he means that digital writing provides a context in which outside participation, the acknowledgement of an audience, and the tangible and visible stages of developing a piece all come together to strengthen the process. Digital writing is about using the process of organic writing; engagement on a much larger scale. Digital writing is interactive, reactive, social, and, at times, messy.

Jason Ranker, in his essay The Affordances of Blogs and Digital Video, uses a specific case study to add nuance to the idea of blogging as a tool of scholarly engagement. He discusses two students, Jakob and Derek, and their blogging and digital video project. As ninth-grade students Jakob and Derek, along with other pairs in their class, were tasked with creating blogs and videos about a topic of their choice. What Ranker found from observing Jakob and Derek is that the class’ use of blogging, commenting, and multimodal aspects (video) lead to dynamic discussions, both online and in person. While he concedes that there were limitations to blogging (less depth and limited face-to-face interaction), he finds that “[b]y providing multiple modes, media, and technologies through which students can explore their topics, a more comprehensive—and perhaps more engaging—understanding of the research process and of the subject matter can emerge.” This includes online discussion between students, an aspect that Jakob touches on when he says, “nobody will listen to your blog if you have no credibility.” Again, an audience creates accountability and interaction, which affords credibility.

Ranker also touches on the power of multimodal aspects of digital writing and engagement. Multimodality can be defined as, “blends of words, pictures, charts, graphs, tables, audio, and/or video,” in the context of digital writing, or in traditionally published sources such as textbooks. As Ranker mentions, things such as hyperlinks expand discussion by introducing other web pages and sources in a tangible way. Video (and images) aid in conveying a message, acting as “a visual means to communicate complex ideas.” Often times words need the help of visuals in order to fully articulate an experience or point.

https://chegordonliteracyprofile.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/week-two-multiliteracies/

Chris Thaiss, in discussing multimodality both online and in brochures, on research posters, in journals, and beyond, writes that, “[e]ven the articles in peer-reviewed journals… include an array of visuals—charts, graphs, tables, photos, drawings—to supplement and clarify written text.” Multimodality is a way of further unpacking what is written, adding context. It is inherently linked to digital writing because images, sound, video, and hyperlinks are accessible and clickable, adding more depth to writing and paving the way for better understanding.

The regretful part about my education is that I firmly believe I chose the wrong major, or at the very least I could have chosen a better major. I chose political science because I was unable to commit to anything else. Luckily, I have been able to tailor my major to fit my interest in journalism and writing. I have focused on media and their relationship to politics, and a number of my classes have required blogging in order to better understand that relationship. I have found it to be the most effective means of understanding the field, and the most interesting. Looking at classmate’s blogs allows each student to approach the course material from different angles (and also allows students to interact with each other on a slightly-less superficial plane).

Digital writing is a means of scholarly engagement that goes beyond the traditional essay in that it is true engagement. When writing a research paper for a professor, you are only accountable to yourself and to your professor. It is easy, then, to write in a superficial, formulaic way that betrays your actual identity as a writer. Too often do formal essays leave me wondering how they helped me in any substantial way. As many of the authors above noted, an audience beyond you and your professor adds weight to issues, and forces more insightful and developed work. Writers in digital environments began to add more of themselves into their work, which is how they expand their scholarship. True engagement in scholarship necessitates interest, and digital writing is a catalyst for interest. If you can’t write online like you are interested in your subject matter, then you lose your audience. You lose credibility. Writing online, therefore, promotes interest and engagement.

In personal terms, writing online is a way to produce a portfolio of sorts that I can show prospective employers. It is more intriguing than linking them to a PDF of an essay for class because what I write online is a concise discussion of topics that interest me, and therefore represents my best work. I would rather an author see my piece about homophobia in the hip-hop community than my recent research paper on government in Latin America. Writing about homophobia might prove to be polarizing, but it is a much more personal and interesting piece. Multimodal aspects also allow me to engage readers and address sources in a more direct way, allowing for a better and more informative read.

Writing online usually requires writing for an audience that is made up of readers from multiple disciplines and backgrounds. Given that, it is necessary to write online employing rhetoric that can transcend your topic and be understood by everyone. In that sense, digital writing is a practice in liberal arts; it is an aggregate of multiple and diverse styles that lend to readability and understanding, more so than other academic works. Writing for politics online means writing so that your science-minded friend can understand the complexities of the judicial process. Writing for science online means writing so your politically-minded friend can understand the complexities of the double helix. In each case, we are using a liberal arts mindset to explore topics online.

Perhaps the most important and formative aspect of writing online is that it is ever-changing, ever-evolving. Technology may give rise to new ways of sharing your writing, or new ways to use image and sound. We will continue to see the expansion of internet access into rural and impoverished areas in the world, creating larger and more diverse audiences. With that, our own engagement with digital writing will change. Nothing is definitive online, only collaborative.  

Written using the following articles and blogs as sources:

Cecire, Natalia. “How Public Like a Frog: On Academic Blogging.” Arcade. Stanford University, 20 April, 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2015. http://arcade.stanford.edu/blogs/how-public-frog-academic-blogging

Fitzpatrick, Kathleen. “Networking the Field.” Planned Adolescence. N.p. 10 Jan. 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2015. http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/networking-the-field/

Jen Rajchel, “Consider the Audience,” in Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning, ed. Jack Dougherty and Tennyson O’Donnell (University of Michigan Press/Trinity College ePress edition, 2014), http://epress.trincoll.edu/webwriting/chapter/rajchel.

Ranker, Jason. “The Affordances of Blogs and Digital Video.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 58.7 (2015): 568-578. Print. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jaal.405/epdf

Rorabaugh, Pete. “Organic Writing and Digital Media: Seeds and Organs.” Hybrid Pedagogy (2012): n. pag. Web. 21 Oct. 2015 http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/organic-writing-and-digital-media-seeds-and-organs/

Thaiss, Chris. “Multimodal Assignments: Writing for the Digital Age.” The CETL Blog. UC Davis Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, 8 May 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015. http://cetlblog.ucdavis.edu/writing-for-the-digital-age/