Rhetorical Strategies of Social Media & Academic Writing

I was recently asked during a teaching demonstration if I believed that the rhetorical strategies employed in social media and other forms of what is often viewed as informal online communication could inform and even enhance “academic writing.” My issues with the problematic definition of “academic writing” aside, I believe the answer is an emphatic yes. When prompted to explain why, however, I found myself unable to effectively articulate a response that could address what most would deem a radical idea in any depth or breadth.

This is an issue I have only begun to explore, one I hope to find better answers to.

David Crystal argues in Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 that the more proficient a person is with the communication conventions of “textese”—or “lolspeak”—the more proficient that person is likely to be with other forms of communication including formal English.

“How could this be?” you might be asking.

IMO, it all boils down to audience. Effective communication skills are predicated on one’s ability to assess and subsequently meet the expectations of one’s audience. The more adroit a person is with this practice in one medium, the more adept s/he is likely to be in another.
I think better answers to this question exist, but I am simply unable to articulate them at this time.

Currently, the reason I blend computer and internet technologies in my writing classes has less to do with the ways in which rhetorical strategies overlap (although I will definitely be exploring that issue in more depth, so I can more effectively blend writing and technology in my classroom instruction and assignments) than the ways in which our electronic communication media can be appropriated for more powerful purposes than just personal communication.

I don’t mind that I was unable to fully and effectively answer the question. I only wish that I had been able to express myself more articulately. I am glad the question was posed. It has given me something to puzzle over and explore in the research in which I am just now immersing myself.