Several WIDE researchers presented on varying topics related to digital writing research and teaching at the 2007 Computers and Writing Conference at Wayne State University, May 17-20.

WIDE co-director Bill Hart Davidson, along with Professional Writing director Danielle DeVoss, and WIDE project assistants Stacey Pigg and Douglas Walls presented on the “QuickStart” project. In this workshop-style presentation, DeVoss, Hart-Davidson, Pigg, and Walls presented findings from ongoing research on the intersections between social networks and collaborative digital writing, while inviting attendees to experience first-hand how social networks can influence writing decisions and performances. During the presentation, attendees completed a short collaborative digital writing assignment and filled out social networking grids that described their relationships with others in the room. Materials from the presentation are available online at http://www.digitalwriting.org/cw/.

Graduate students Staci Perryman-Clary and Douglas Walls gave a presentation “We be textin’” about the appropriation and hybridization of digital and AAVE writing. Perryman-Clark and Walls demonstrated rhetorical features indicative of both digital speak and AAVE, and highlighted overlap between the two. They also displayed an example of “hybrid” language, where both digital and AAVE rhetorics intersect on a Facebook posting.

Graduate RA Jim Ridolfo posed to his audience the need to reconsider and reshape our rhetorical theories of delivery. According to Ridolfo, theories of delivery have been grounded in oral and print communications; along with that comes assumptions about kairos, the rhetorical moment, ethos and identity of the rhetor. These theories cannot account for the differing complexities, affordances, and considerations of digital delivery. Ridolfo introduced a new concept he is working with, which he calls “rhetorical valuation: "The process of managing the continued strategic worth and function of a document, post the basic technical act of rhetorical delivery." Ridolfo's Powerpoint can be downloaded here.

Graduate RA Kendall Leon and Stacey Pigg presented their empirical research on graduate student work in relation to genres produced, reused and circulated. For this presentation, they focused on the development of their methodology, specifically outlining the theories they combined and developed, the affordances of the methods they selected and how it adds to writing research in general, while also discussing the productive tensions inherent in their methodology. Pigg and Leon ended the presentation highlighting some of their findings from the data collected through interviews, diary logs, and screen captures of graduate student work sessions, in addition to posing questions about legitimate professional participation, digital writing research, and the relationship between work and social networking technologies. Their PowerPoint presentation can be accessed here.

Danielle DeVoss, WIDE Community College liaison Martine Courant Rife, and Rhetoric and Writing grad students Matt Penniman, Roberto Reyes, and Suzanne Webb performed an informative and innovative role-play that demonstrated the complexities of intellectual property and copyright laws. The panel incorporated the competing perspectives of the various stakeholders involved, including artists, lawyers, students, and music industry leaders.