WIDE Writing

In my recent article, "The Writing Lives of College Students" created by the Writing in Digital Environments (WIDE) Research Center, they went into depth and took a diverse sample of college students across the nation to see the differences of writing genres in their lives. Amongst the most popular genres, these were found: texting, lecture notes, Email, academic papers, research papers, and more.

In response to the data along with its impact with literacy, I also found possible research questions I could further study upon. Here is my feedback:

Within the article I read, the Writing in Digital Environment (WIDE) Research Center sampled and considered the plethora of factors that take place within the writing lives of contemporary college students. This study involved students from different cultural and academic backgrounds to maintain diversity and gather a steady result for the demographic of the nation. In the first part of their results, they automatically found that students amongst the most frequently use electronics such as cell phones, emails, and other electronic genres. However, it was noted that the cell phone is the top frequently used and it highlights the importance it plays in college students’ lives. In the article, the phone was even compared o being the contemporary pencil for this day and it makes sense, due to being able to compose academic essays and emails with access to one’s phone. Another aspect that was found was how, in order of value or importance to students, the different genres was ranked. The top five, in order was: texting, Email, lecture notes, academic papers, and research papers. Due to these findings it was concluded that students value traditional writing schools more than their electronics, proving to be why college students today are at such a high literacy rate. Along this note, with analyzing the results, an inverse relationship was found with the genres. The most popular or frequently used genres such as texting or Email were actually amongst the least valued; But in contradiction, genres such as academic papers, research papers, and lecture notes were in the top for most value. The study also arose a literacy question, which would be: Does gender influence to what students write in certain genres? This is because it was found in business writing males reported 25%, while women were 20%. Also, women are significantly more likely than men to use lecture notes, outlines, and lists. Another possible question raised could be based on writing frequency vs. value. Based on the results, students do not value texting highly at all, however papers and notes are within range of frequency and value to the students. It would be interesting to research what factors help form these results and why/how. Another relevant topic was found with the data as well, different institutions adopt different policies and writing habits. This was made into a study and it was found that based digital writing styles do change across different institution types, thus raising another possible question. I also found this last data similar to the ideas of Deborah Brandt, how she claimed that those being sponsored take the influences from their sponsor and adapt it to their own life.