Ubiquitous Writing, Technologies, and the Social Practice of Literacies of Coordination
Open accessAbstract
This article shares results from a multi-institutional study of the role of writing in college students’ lives. Using case studies built from a larger population survey along with interviews, diaries, and a daily SMS texting protocol, we found that students report SMS texting, lecture notes, and emails to be the most frequent writing practices in college student experience and that these writing practices are often highly valued by students as well. Our data suggest that college students position these pervasive and important writing practices as coordinative acts that create social alignment. Writing to coordinate people and things is more than an instrumental practice: through this activity, college students not only operate within established social collectives that shape literacy but also actively participate in building relationships that support them. In this regard, our study of writing as it functions in everyday use helps us understand contemporary forms of social interaction.
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Many qualitative studies in professional communication have started to examine post-bureaucratic work and its particular challenges for the field.
“In particular, many qualitative studies in professional communication have begun to explore post-bureaucratic work and its special challenges for professional communication (e.g., [13][36][50]).”
From Fourth-Generation Activity Theory: An Integrative Literature Review and Implications for Professional Communication (2019) · cites this paper as [36]
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- Authors
- Pigg, S., Grabill, J. T., Brunk-Chavez, B., Moore, J. L., Rosinski, P., & Curran, P. G.
- Affiliations
- University of Central Florida (US)
- Michigan State University (US)
- The University of Texas at El Paso (US)
- Elon University (US)
- Kenyon College (US)
- Venue
- Written Communication
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-12-09
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 91-117
- ISSN
- 0741-0883 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-8472
- OpenAlex
- W2164453274
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4
- FWCI
- 39.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Written Communication (publishedVersion)
- Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Michigan State University
- University of Central Florida
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Literacy, Media, and Education
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Digital Communication and Language
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Linguistics and Education Research
- Keywords
- university students, text messaging, lecture notes, email, writing practices, coordination, social alignment, literacy practices, everyday writing, social interaction
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