Presentation about the "Writing Lives of College Students" research study by the WIDE Research Center, Michigan State University - presenters Jeff Grabill, Stacey Pigg, and Bill Hart-Davidson.

1. Mapping the Writing Lives of College Students: A Story about a Study in Three Parts Pigg, Grabill, Hart-Davidson Michigan State University Writing in Digital Environments Research Center http://wide.msu.edu

2. Part I: Visualizing Composition I Bill Hart-Davidson [email_address] @billhd Michigan State University Writing in Digital Environments Research Center http://wide.msu.edu

5. Melinda’s Diary

6. Jennifer’s Diary

13. Melinda’s CEM web forms 6/2 6/3 6/4 6/5 6/6 6/7 6/8 6/9 6/10 6/11 6/12 6/13 Items in orange were writing for her composition course. * the prewrite, write, rewrite “process” sequence * 2 Weeks of Literate Activity key writing document instant messaging reading

15. 2 15 3 9 Event Types Journal Essay E-mail & IM Work UI 3 2 E-mail 1 7 9 Genres How does Melinda represent her literate life? IM Reading Work-Related Writing

16. Journal Essay E-mail & IM Work UI 3 2 E-mail 1 7 9 Who does Melinda coordinate with and how? friends 45 1 to 1 msu alumni 2 peers instructor 1 2 1 time only 1 time only 1 time each many times limited interaction among workers private other workers

17. Part II: Visualizing Composition II Jeff Grabill [email_address] @grabill Michigan State University Writing in Digital Environments Research Center http://wide.msu.edu

24. Frequency and Value

25. Institution Type Matters

29. Part III: Next Steps for Revisualizing Composition Stacey Pigg [email_address] @pidoubleg Michigan State University Writing in Digital Environments Research Center http://wide.msu.edu

31. Research Questions 1 & 2 47% of participants rank texting in their top 5 for value. Participants also report high levels of value for academic writing. RQ1: What forms of writing do college students value in their lives and why? 78% rank texting in their top 5 most often written genres, and 46% indicate texting is the kind of writing that they perform more than any other RQ2: Where does texting fit within the writing lives of college students--what does it do and how does it function in relation to other writing practices? 1 2

32. Research Questions 3 and 4 Our survey shows that student writing lives are complex, but we lack information about the resources they draw upon. RQ3: What resources students draw on to accomplish a range of writing tasks, how they do so, and why? Our survey shows that writing experiences differ across institution type, especially for genres associated with digital technologies, but we lack an understanding of why or how. RQ4: How do the writing experiences of our students differ across institution types? 3 4

36. WIDE Writing in Digital Environments Research Center Bill Hart-Davidson [email_address] http://wide.msu.edu Thank You! Jeff Grabill [email_address] Stacey Pigg [email_address]