Written Communication Jul 2007

Affordances and Text-Making Practices in Online Instant Messaging

Carmen K.-M. Lee

Abstract

This study examines the factors influencing language and script choice in instant messaging (IM), a form of real-time computer-mediated communication, in a multilingual setting. Grounded in the New Literacy Studies, the study understands IM as a social practice involving texts, encompassing a range of literacy practices, within which a subset called “text-making practices” is highlighted in this article. Drawing on results from an analysis of chat texts, interviews, and logbooks collected from 19 young people, the author suggests that the text-making practices related to language and writing system choice are guided by the perceived affordances of the IM technology and the available linguistic resources. Seven ecological factors influencing these perceptions have been identified: perceived expressiveness of the language, perceived functions of IM , user familiarity with the language, user identification with the language, technical constraints of inputting methods, speed , and perceived practicality of the writing system. The author argues that these factors often co-occur in real use.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2007-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088307303215
Topics
literacy studies multimodality multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (7)

  1. Almansa-Villatoro (2025)
    Seeing Images, Reading Hieroglyphs: A Reassessment of the Functions of Nonalpha…
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  2. Shivener et al. (2025)
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  3. Pihlaja (2020)
    Inventing Others in Digital Written Communication: Intercultural Encounters on …
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  4. Getto (2020)
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  5. Kimmons et al. (2017)
    Essay Composition across Media: A Quantitative Comparison of 8th Grade Student …
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Show all 7 →
  1. Pennington (2017)
    Literacy, Culture, and Creativity in a Digital Era
    Pedagogy
  2. Haas et al. (2011)
    Building and Maintaining Contexts in Interactive Networked Writing: An Examinat…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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  1. Kress (2005)
    Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning
    Computers and Composition
  2. Prior (2005)
    Moving multimodality beyond the binaries: A response to Gunther Kress’ “Gains a…
    Computers and Composition
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