Jasmine Li

Writing 2
De Piero
4.12.16
WP1: The Difference in Digital Thoughts
In the 21st century, the most common form of writing is found in social media. From the
the moment one opens their eyes until one closes them, social media is used constantly 24 hours

Comment [1]: Sadly, I think the vast majority of the

public does this -- not just college students. :(

a day. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram play a huge role in everyday lives
but each has a unique aspect. Facebook serves to share, while Twitter spreads an opinion, and
Instagram connects words to a photo. Diction in social media is extremely different from other
forms of professional writing; this genre is casual, age revolving, and does not require extensive
thought. Social media serves the distinctive purpose of presenting an individual through the
online world by different conventions such as tone, diction, and detail while each type of social
media achieves this goal in a different way.
Everyone has a Facebook, but what draws people to make an account? Facebook gives
people a sense of identity as well as a profile to share themselves with the world. The purpose of
Facebook is to share ones life with another. As I look through my Facebook profile, I found that
many Facebook statuses update friends about a significant update in their life such as a change
in relationship status, job, or education. My friend, Samantha Lee, says, So excited to be
interning for Facebook Messenger this summer! San Jose, here I come! The audience of
someones Facebook depends on the user. It can be anyone with an account or only people she is
friends with, depending on what the user chooses in their settings. Usually the audience of
Facebook is very massive for there are many users and according to Aaron Smith in Pew

Comment [2]: I need more of a specific, driving thesis

statement, Li. What, exactly, are you going to be
arguing here? And what specific points are you going
to use to make that case? What about the conventions
within this genre will you be emphasizing? Also: do
you think itd help your reader (technically, me) to lay
out which specific sources youll be using to make your
case? Ie, whose FB, Twitter, and Instagram posts?
I'm also wondering what your TOPIC is. I know what
genre you'll be focusing on -- social media
captions/statuses -- but... about what?

Research Center, Average amount of friends for a Facebook user is 465 friends This just
shows how enormous the audience is for a single status.
The diction of Facebook statuses differs from other social media in that they are more
detailed and specific. This is because the purpose of these statuses is to share with others what
they are doing or what is new in their life. Describing these experiences usually require
background and details of how this participation came to be. A status usually isnt super personal
but at the same time still special. For example, my friend Andrey recently got engaged and
posted a status, So happy to spend the rest of my life with this beautiful woman. It doesnt
include details of how it happened but does mention that it did happen. Since Facebook is a very
public form of social media, people usually do not post information they dont want the general
public to know. Especially with Facebook, it is extremely easy for people to share information
with other people whether it be through word of mouth or even a screenshot. The audience for
Facebook is limitless thus limiting individual privacy.
Scrolling down my feed, I also saw many statuses explaining ones point of view. Since
Facebook has such a broad network, many people use it to share their opinion on personal or
political views. The purpose of this is to share their thoughts but also be able to see comments of
others. This is a very easy and effective way to find out other peoples opinion about something.
A recent status posted was I dont understand why anyone would vote for Trump. This status
creates controversy and allows people to state their opinions against or with one another.
The tone of Facebook statuses depends on the person and event. Some statuses are very
casual, for example, one said, like my status for a fun fact about you. But on the other hand my
friend, Natalie, recently posted, I will be attending University of California, Santa Barbara. I
chose this school becauseetc. These are two completely different statuses but both are

Comment [3]: Tone is an excellent idea to bring up and

analyze for this paper, but right here it's buried within
the paragraph (and I'm not really sure what the
paragraph is ultimately about).
I think you'd really benefit from forcing yourself to
create an outline, paragraph by paragraph, about the
major points/ideas you're bringing up in your paper.
THEN, you want to go back and see if each sentence
comes back to those main points.
In other words, if you had a whole paragraph about
tone, great! This sentence is spot-on within that
paragraph.
But right now, you've got a sentence about tone, and...
what's the paragraph about?

commonly found on Facebook. They differ greatly in tone; the first has a serious tone and thus
uses formal diction while the other is more casual and has a more conversational diction. It uses
first order thinking which is thinking that is intuitive and creative and doesnt strive for
conscious direction or control (Elbow 55) When writing a Facebook status, there is no rough

Comment [4]: This is a REALLY cool idea to bring up in

your paper, but I feel like it's buried in the paragraph.

draft, one writes directly what is on their mind without thinking about grammar errors but just
spills their thoughts onto the keyboard. This is what make statuses so unique, it is someones
direct thought.
Compared to Facebook statuses, tweets are extremely different. Twitter is exceptionally
personal and opinionated compared to other forms of social media. In terms of audience,

Comment [5]: Remember, Twitter is a program/website.

It's not a textual genre in the same way that FB
statuses are.

someone will usually have less than a hundred followers compared to hundreds on Facebook.
Twitter does have a constraint of 140 words so that shows that the diction is usually not too
specific since there is a constraint. A constraint is known as something that limits the way the
discourse is delivered or communicated (Carroll 49) Because of the 140 word limit, people
cannot fully express their thoughts but instead is forced to summarize their main argument.
On Twitter, one can freely say anything they want. The whole purpose of a tweet is to

Comment [6]: Constraint is a tremendous concept to

bring up here. Question for you: would it help your
paper/argument at all if you had a whole paragraph
devoted to the constraints in EACH of the 3 sources?
Ie, 1 paragraph about constraints in FB, Twitter, and
IG? What would/could that do for your analysis?

share your opinion. If one person agrees they can retweet it and if they do not agree, they can
reply with their own opinion. The audience of tweets are more specific for most people usually
only follow their closer friends. Many tweets are very controversial because people do not censor
much of what they post on twitter. For example, Nicki Minaj tweeted, If I was a different
kind of artist, Anaconda would be nominated for best choreo and vid as well. Taylor Swift
responded with Ive done nothing but love & support you. Its unlike you to pit women against
each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot. This is an example of twitter beef where
people speak freely but of course, may happen to offend one another. People tend to be very

Comment [7]: Such as? I need evidence here.

open and say whatever they think using first order thinking more than Facebook does. This can
be both a bad and good thing. The purpose of twitter is to share ones opinion compared to
Facebook statuses which is to share your life events. Facebook may include opinions but twitter
has a more open and accepting audience.
The diction used for tweets is very simple and casual. Tweets are meant to be read
quickly and conveniently. People are not trying to read a story instead are looking to read a one
sentence opinion. This is different compared to Facebook since most Facebook statues are more
paragraph like. Facebook and Twitter diction are both casual and personal. Both revolve around

Comment [8]: I like how you're going back to FB and

explaining how/why they're different.

the writer more than the reader. Twitter is so casual that people may even subtweet someone.
When my two friends got in a fight, one tweeted, I never thought our friendship would end like
this. A twitter account is like a public diary. Many tweets use pathos for it is a very effective
appeal if the rhetor has to persuade the audience in a very short amount of time. (Carroll 53).

Comment [9]: The "for example" is a good idea, but the

example you listed here isn't really an example.
I need you to use actual data here, Li. I need you to be
looking at *specific* documents and making claims
about them that help you support a position/argument.

Pathos is used immensely for the purpose of a tweet is to state an opinion hoping to convince the
reader of the same thing within 140 words.
Although Instagram is a photo-based social media, a big part of it is also in the photo
captions. I know for myself, I spend a while thinking of a caption for my picture. Captions for
Instagram are usually short and witty. For example, when I was stressed out for midterms I
posted a picture with the caption, Back to when midterms werent a thing. Captions are short,
simple, and capture the moment of the picture with a couple words. Although there isnt an
actual limiting constraint on Instagram captions, there is an even bigger constraint on Instagram
captions than tweets. This is because tweets are focused on words whereas in Instagram it is
focused more on the picture. The captions are usually very short and witty. They dont have to

Comment [10]: Li, Im wondering if your paper would

benefit from re-structuring the organization. Instead of
-Source #1 (FB)
-Source #2 (Twitter)
-Source #3 (IG)
Could your paper/argument unfold a more
integrated/interwoven way if you did something like:
-Idea #1 (and then incorporate sources 1, 2, 3)
-Idea #2 (and then incorporate sources 1, 2, 3)
-Idea #3 (and then incorporate sources 1, 2, 3)?

mean anything but they can, its really up for interpretation. People are free to put whatever they
want; one can even leave it blank.
Compared to the other kinds of social media, Instagram definitely allows more freedom
in terms of content. Some people can share something personal in their caption, an opinion, or
even just plain emojis. The purpose of Instagram captions is to back up the picture or just add a
little something extra. Its not the main purpose of Instagram so it is not looked at particularly.
Also with Instagram captions one can change them without anyone seeing. Compared to other
social media, Facebook users can edit but others can see the edits done. With twitter, one would
have to delete and redo the tweet. This shows the level of casualty each social media has. The
style and tone of an Instagram caption is more casual than any other type of social media. One
usually takes less than 3 seconds to browse through the captions, sometimes not even reading
them.
The importance of genres is often overlooked. How can social medias with different
purposes use the same conventions? A genre allows readers to see how specific choices that
writers make result in specific actions on the part of readers (Dirk 254) Genres give readers a
format to follow and help understand what makes each genre unique from other genres. Its
importance is to set an example for others to follow and create conventions that make each type
of writing easier to read and understand.
Genres play a big part of how someone writes the way they do. When one looks up
examples to follow on a type of writing, that is understanding genres. There are many types of
genre but I chose to focus on social media captions and statuses. I looked into Facebook statuses,
twitters tweets, and Instagram captions which all serve different purposes in terms of the
amount of detail, but at the same time, they all share a personal and casual tone. The word count

Comment [11]: I think you can get all of these

points/information across in 1/2 or 1/3 of the space.
Get right to it. No fluff, Miss Li.
(PS, I don't know if you're aware of this, but you can
raise questions in your writing. You don't have any
questions in this.)

constraint is different for each of the three social media and that plays a huge role in how much
the writer chooses to include. The conventions of the social media genre have tones and diction
that is casual, personal, but not too detailed or specific. They share the main purpose of
entertainment and sharing ones life with another which is what all kinds of social media aims to
do.

Work Cited
Carroll, Laura Bolin. Backpacks VS. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis.
Dirk, Kerry. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Volume 1: Navigating Genres. 2010.
Elbow, Peter. Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching. New York: Oxford
U Press.

1986.

Writing 2 Feedback Matrix for WP1

Table of Textual Features

Did Not Meet

Expectations
Thesis Statement

Use of Textual Evidence

from Genres

Use of Course Readings

Met Expectations

Exceeded
Expectations

Analysis

X
(because you
didnt reference
actual texts)

Organization/Structure

Attention to
Genre/Conventions and
Rhetorical Factors

X/X-

Sentence-level Clarity,
Mechanics, Flow

X
Li,

Other Comments
I think this paper has a lot of potential here, and Im
expecting great work from you in the portfolio. Your #1 task
is to find actual examples/texts to base an argument on. To
successfully write an argument about textual genres, you
need to be looking at real FB statuses, real Tweets, and real
IG captions -- and THEN you need to find ones about the
same topic. After you do that, you can begin to work on
finding an interesting argument to make about them.
It looks like youve got a pretty solid hold on many of our
WP1 concepts -- you even mentioned tone, constraints, and
1st-order thinking, which I the
ought were all great -- but this absolutely, positively has to
be tied to actual texts.
Z

6.5/10