Week: 4 Ryan Shepherd Summary: Facebook in First Year Composition

Can you see a connection between writing for Facebook and writing for school?  Based on the data collected from Ryan Shepherd’s survey, first year compositions students did not see a connection between writing for FB and writing for school. Why? First, many students considered Facebook to be a conversation and strongly associated Facebook with oral language rather than written language (Shepherd 92).  Second, a high number of students had two definitions of “composition,” formal writing or art and design (Shepherd 93). Third, teachers have not done a great job of integrating “rhetoric of digital social media instruction into their classroom” (Shepherd 93). These three explanations were a result from Shepherd’s survey and the basis for why Shepherd wrote this article.

As technology continues to integrate into composition classrooms, Shepherd felt that his finding was an opportune moment to bring awareness to his students that social media is another platform for rhetorical writing in FYC classrooms. He sought out to prove that many of his student enacted writing practices while constructing a post, creating a profile, and making a comment. These practices included addressing a certain audience, drafting a message, and posting a rhetorical situation. His evidence suggested that in fact there is a connection and he just needs to make students aware of the connection (Shepherd 92).  Shepherd’s article was very informative and it helped strengthen my belief that writing practices are connected to FB activity even though FB is not a typical space students use for FYC classes.