College Composition and Communication Sep 2020

Who’s Afraid of Facebook? A Survey of Students’ Online Writing Practices

David Gold ; Jathan Day ; Adrienne E. Raw

Abstract

We surveyed 803 undergraduates at a large public university about their online writing practices. We find that despite wide platform access, students typically write in a narrow range of spaces for limited purposes and audiences, with a majority expressing rhetorical concerns about writing in digital spaces. These findings suggest rich opportunities for writing instructors to better help students negotiate the terrain of online public discourse.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2020-09-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc202030888
Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing across the curriculum social media online writing instruction public rhetoric

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (15)

  1. Meloncon et al. (2019)
    Empirical Research in Technical and Professional Communication: A 5-Year Examin…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Vetter (2018)
    Teaching Wikipedia: Appalachian Rhetoric and the Encyclopedic Politics of Repre…
    College English
  3. DeLuca (2018)
    Shared Passions, Shared Compositions: Online Fandom Communities and Affinity Gr…
    Computers and Composition
  4. Gallagher (2016)
    What Writers Do: Behaviors, Behaviorism, and Writing Studies
    College Composition and Communication
  5. Beerits (2016)
    Understanding I: The Rhetorical Variety of Self-References in College Literatur…
    College Composition and Communication
Show all 15 →
  1. Moore et al. (2016)
    Revisualizing Composition: How First-Year Writers Use Composing Technologies
    Computers and Composition
  2. Lancaster (2016)
    Do Academics Really Write This Way? A Corpus Investigation of Moves and Templat…
    College Composition and Communication
  3. Gallagher (2015)
    Five Strategies Internet Writers Use to “Continue the Conversation”
    Written Communication
  4. Gruwell (2015)
    Wikipedia's Politics of Exclusion: Gender, Epistemology, and Feminist Rhetorica…
    Computers and Composition
  5. Pigg et al. (2014)
    Ubiquitous Writing, Technologies, and the Social Practice of Literacies of Coor…
    Written Communication
  6. Mueller (2012)
    Grasping Rhetoric and Composition by Its Long Tail: What Graphs Can Tell Us abo…
    College Composition and Communication
  7. Buck (2012)
    Examining Digital Literacy Practices on Social Network Sites
    Research in the Teaching of English
  8. Mackiewicz (2010)
    The Co-construction of Credibility in Online Product Reviews
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  9. Wolfe (2010)
    Rhetorical Numbers: A Case for Quantitative Writing in the Composition Classroom
    College Composition and Communication
  10. Ervin (2006)
    Teaching Public Literacy: The Partisanship Problem
    College English
Also cites 20 works outside this index ↓
  1. Aillerie (2018)
    “Are Social Networking Sites Information Sources? Informational Purposes of High-School S…
    Journal of Librarianship and Information Science  ↗
  2. Allmer (2015)
    10.4324/9781315750491
    Critical Theory and Social Media: Between Emancipation and Commodification  ↗
  3. Charney (1996)
    “Empiricism Is Not a Four-Letter Word.”
    College Composition and Communication  ↗
  4. Chun (2015)
    “Habits of Leaking: Of Sluts and Network Cards.”
    Differences  ↗
  5. Cote (2017)
    “‘I Can Defend Myself ’: Women’s Strategies for Coping with Harassment While Gaming Online.”
    Games and Culture  ↗
  6. Dijck (2013)
    10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199970773.001.0001
    The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media  ↗
  7. Giroux (2015)
    “Selfie Culture in the Age of Corporate and State Surveillance.”
    Third Text  ↗
  8. Hargittai (2012)
    “Searching for a ‘Plan B’: Young Adults’ Strategies for Finding Information about Emergen…
    Policy & Internet  ↗
  9. Hargittai (2012)
    “Succinct Survey Measures of Web Use Skills.”
    Social Science Computer Review  ↗
  10. Hendriks (2016)
    “Performing Politics on Social Media: The Dramaturgy of an Environmental Controversy on F…
    Environmental Politics  ↗
  11. Klein (2017)
    10.1007/978-3-319-51424-6
    Fanaticism, Racism, and Rage Online: Corrupting the Digital Sphere  ↗
  12. Litt (2016)
    “The Imagined Audience on Social Network Sites.”
    Social Media + Society  ↗
  13. Livingstone (2004)
    “Media Literacy and the Challenge of New Information and Communication Technologies.”
    Communication Review  ↗
  14. Margaryan (2011)
    “Are Digital Natives a Myth or Reality? University Students’ Use of Digital Technologies.”
    Computers & Education  ↗
  15. Marwick (2010)
    “I Tweet Honestly, I Tweet Passionately: Twitter Users, Context Collapse, and the Imagine…
    New Media & Society  ↗
  16. Marwick (2014)
    “Networked Privacy: How Teenagers Negotiate Context in Social Media.”
    New Media & Society  ↗
  17. Matei (2017)
    10.1007/978-3-319-64425-7
    Structural Differentiation in Social Media: Adhocracy, Entropy, and the  ↗
  18. Pittman (2016)
    “Social Media and Loneliness: Why an Instagram Picture May Be Worth More than a Thousand …
    Computers in Human Behavior  ↗
  19. Thompson (2013)
    “The Digital Natives as Learners: Technology Use Patterns and Approaches to Learning.”
    Computers & Education  ↗
  20. Yancey (2004)
    “Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key.”
    College Composition and Communication  ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network →

Related Articles

  1. Technical Communication Quarterly Oct 2025
    Social Mediations: Writing for Digital Public Spheres ↗
    Jamie Littlefield
    social media public rhetoric
  2. Teaching English in the Two-Year College May 2024
    Instructional Note: North Central Texas College’s First-Year Composition Textbook Project ↗
    Rochelle Gregory; Kristen Weinzapfel; Jacob Arnold; Alisha Dietz; Jared Ince; Amy Ott; Jocelynn Peña Hawkins; Jason Poe; Lisa Smart; Kayla West
    first-year composition two-year college writing across the curriculum online writing instruction
  3. Computers and Composition Sep 2023
    Technofeminism, Twitter, and the counterpublic rhetoric of @SheRatesDogs ↗
    Alexis Sabryn Walston
    social media gender and writing public rhetoric
  4. Research in the Teaching of English Aug 2023
    Literacy Research and Its Relationship with Policy: What and Who Informs Policy and Why Is Some Research Ignored? ↗
    Uta Papen
    literacy studies writing across the curriculum public rhetoric
  5. Rhetoric & Public Affairs Jun 2023
    Sport Spectacle, Billie Jean King, and the Battle of the Sexes Tennis Match in Public Memory ↗
    Kyle King
    writing across the curriculum qualitative research online writing instruction gender and writing multilingual writers