RESEARCH PROPOSAL: THE IMPACT SOCIAL

MEDIA HAS ON THE FORMAL WRITING

PROCESS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Celena Gilbert
Master of Arts in English Student at Arizona State University
Summer 2019

GENERAL AREA OF STUDY

The overall area of study is that of language discourse/discourse analysis.

Discourse analysis is the study of “[…] language, both written and oral, as it is actually
used […]” (Griffin 93). My focal point within this large scope is that of the written
language of high school students and how that has developed over the years
(specifically since the development of social media). I will be examining the written
language focusing on the difference between how sophomore students write on their
social media platforms and how they write formally (for instance, essays). Going beyond
this, even, I would like to use discourse analysis to determine how one can meld social
media writing with that of formal writing to encourage an increase in academic language
and discourse.

PREVIOUS WORK THAT LED TO THIS SPECIFIC QUESTION

Given the drastic rise in social media over the past several years, many different
research projects have been completed in regards to its impact on students and their
work ethic in various facets. Some researchers have even gone as far as to create new
applications/systems to embrace the social media change within students. Here is some
general information from four previous research projects revolving around a similar topic
as this research proposal:
The first one is Diane Neal’s research in her extensive piece titled “Social Media
for Academics.” Neal focused on incorporating social media within an undergraduate
program, through the eyes of a professor attempting to engage students and also foster
an effective online learning environment. Neal argues for reclaiming social media for its
initial purpose: social networking and branching out within one’s designated
professional field. She even goes so far as to say “Social media can unite us all […]”
(27) expressing that she believes that through the use of social networking people from
various backgrounds and locations can help others expand their academic knowledge
and remove various educational gaps. Along with this argument, Neal provides advice
for implementing his theories/findings in the [collegiate] classroom suggesting social
contracts, daily check-ins, etc. to ensure students are using this tool appropriately and
are truly engaging with the media and assignments. Some suggestions for social media
applications in the classroom were: creating a Facebook group, having students create
their own public blogs, creating a Twitter hashtag, and many others. Overall, Neal found
his implementation to be a successful use of social media in engaging students and
encouraging outward growth and expansion.

Another researcher that investigated the use/impact of social media was Osakue
Omoera et al. in their work titled “Impact of Social Media on the Writing Abilities of
Ambrose Alli University Undergraduates in Ekpoma-Nigeria.” This article also focuses
on undergraduate students and their use of social media. This research project was
completed using surveys that were sent out to undergraduate students to determine
whether or not these students used abridged/slang terms while on various social media
sites. Once this was completed, the research team sent out another survey to determine
if the students that did use abridged/slang terms on social media (which was the vast
majority) were subsequently using the same abridged/slang terms in their formal writing
– again, the results demonstrated that the vast majority of students were doing this. This
research demonstrated that there was a correlation between the use of abridged/slang
terms on social media and the formal writing of these students; however, there was no
analysis or explanation on how to fix this problem.
The third researcher devoted to a similar topic/analysis is Marshall Poe with his
book A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to
the Internet. This text is less aligned to the direct use and impact of social media and
more towards the development of the English language – all the way from the time of
Plato to modern day (which happens to include internet and social media). Poe
discusses the why behind the new language crazes, like social media, which is based
around Plato’s idea of the “push/pull method.” Poe argues that the only reason social
media has taken off the way it has and reached many different people is because the
various platforms had been accepted and promoted by “organized interests.” This
means that when popular organizations, people, etc. deem something worthwhile and
buzz-worthy, the general public will follow suit and this is what led to the development of
such a huge focus on social media with new platforms being created often.
The final researcher that I read from and that encouraged my interest in this topic
is John Sadauskas with his dissertation titled “Improving Adolescent Writing Quality and
Motivation with Sparkfolio, a Social Media Based Writing Tool.” This unique dissertation
and take on the social media impact is based around the development of a social media
analysis program designed specifically to encourage writing from students. This
website, if bought by the instructor, allows for students to log into it, create a profile, and
then link all of their social media sites into one location. Once students have imputed
their information for their various social media sites, Sparkfolio analyzes this data, and
the determines the best topics for personal writing. Through allowing students to utilize
their social media accounts on a specific school/writing assignment allows students to
feel excited and valued by this assignment and by seeing that their interests can be key
in their understanding of certain things. Sadauskas does state, very clearly, that this site
can only be used to spit out personal writing prompts and does not help with formal
writing/essays, which was one of the motivations behind me continue to pursue this
topic and look at how to impact the true essay-writing of students.
Through all of these sources, many things have been discovered about language
discourse and the impact social media has on it, including: how implementing social
media into collegiate classrooms can help develop student-interest and encourage
professional growth; that undergraduate students in Nigeria do tend to use
abridged/slang terms on social media, which then gets used in their formal writing; the
why behind the craze that is social media and why it has such an impact on the lives of
students/teens; and finally, that there was a development in a website that can now
analyze students’ social media accounts and help with personal writing assignments.
With this said, however, there are several gaps in knowledge and things that still
need to be researched and analyzed. For instance, two of these studies center around
undergraduate students, not high schoolers, which is where the focus needs to be since
that it is where the main problem of social media impact on writing is most important –
the way the majority of students are going/writing is going to start impacting those that
even make it to undergraduate programs where this knowledge and research can be
utilized on them. Another gap in this information is the solution – how does knowing this
information motivate change? What do we need to do to stop and reverse these
outcomes that we are noticing? Even with Sadauskas’ website, there is still no
connection/change being made for anything other than personal writing. So, now that
we know there can be tools developed to meld social media platforms/writing with
personal academic writing assignments, we need to determine how to make that same
engagement possible with non-personal writing assignments as well – which is the area
in which students struggle the most. These gaps and need for new knowledge have
demonstrated a need for this research to be completed so that we can teach students
about the importance of writing, using their most loved platforms to do it.

MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION

There are many different components and scopes one can take when looking at
social media increases over the years, but as a teacher, I have one goal in mind
through completing this research: improving the formal writing processes of students all
around the world. In order to realize this goal, I first need to know whether or not there is
a correlation between the increase in social media use and the decline in academic
writing processes of high school students. Through this, I have developed the following
research questions:

1. How has the evolution of technology/social media impacted the writing

process of students?
2. Furthermore, can incorporating these social media platforms in the
classroom and assignments have a positive impact on developing
students' passion and performance on formal writing assignments?

RATIONALE FOR LOOKING AT THIS RESEARCH QUESTION

When it comes to having my students create a formal piece of writing, I hear the
room fill with moans, groans, and other various complaints (as I am sure is a common
sound to the other teachers in this class and profession). These same students,
however, are also the ones consistently talking about their social media presence and
agonizing over crafting the perfect Facebook post, tweet, caption for their photo, etc.
and I find myself wanting to encourage that same dedication in their formal writing
assignments. Seeing my students become so engaged with the writing process for their
various social media accounts encourages me to try and redirect that excitement and
dedication to their essays.

It is through this research endeavor that I hope to understand how to bridge the
gap between students’ social media presence and their formal writing and to motivate
students to care about the process of writing for any medium. This research project has
the potential to help struggling teachers all around the world embrace the changing
technology and meld within its new parameters as a means of re-engaging students.
Through this engagement, there will, likely, be an improvement in the students’ formal
writing process, but I also believe this could be the answer to the rise in behavioral
issues as well. As teachers, we all know that a student that is not engaged with the
material will act out; so why stop at bridging the gap in the development of social media
presences, when we could as far as to use this research to bridge the gap in
student/teacher interactions as a whole? Completing this research has the potential to
see these dreams realized and that is why it is imperative that I pursue this.

HOW I WILL ADDRESS THIS RESEARCH QUESTION

First and foremost, I will be gathering data through an experimental process

(hypothetico-deductive method) and will be completing the trial with five different class
periods of sophomore high school students (my own classes). I will also be working
alongside a colleague that will not be completing these trials, but will be teaching five
sections of sophomores and will be completing the same formal assessments – this will
allow me access to a test group to compare my own results with. Through this
comparison, I will be able to ensure that the data collected throughout my research is
valid, by having a control group. There will be two different parts to my research/data
collection process. One will be through general experimentation and the other will be
through interviewing students before, during, and after the experiment to hear their take
on the research and whether they believe the data to be correct, given their personal
experiences.

The experimental data collection process will follow the following steps:

1. I would need to start by gathering an initial formal writing sample from my

students. This will give me my initial data point that I can use to compare with the
upcoming data points and determine if there was a change in their writing and
what that change was.
2. Once I have my initial data point, I would invite social media presence into my
classroom by having students create accounts specifically for the use of the
class. Students have a school email, so I would have them sign up for Facebook,
Twitter, etc. using this email and I would use mine, to ensure safety in posted
content.
3. Once students have their designated social media sites set up, I would begin by
asking students to post things regarding the class and English, as a whole. I
would leave most of this up to the students, only specifying that it needs to be
school appropriate. This way, I would build students' trust and make them feel
comfortable using social media in this new way.
 4. Once the first three steps are complete, I would then move into
discussing/teaching the process of formal writing, grammar, etc. I would also use
this time to discuss the differences (and similarities) between social media
posting and formal writing and what expectations come with formal writing.
5. I would then ask students to now focus on posting things about the current text(s)
we are reading in class and also have them utilize some of the formal writing
techniques discussed/taught in step four of this process. This would allow for
students to see the similarities/differences on their own and get a true
understanding of it.
6. Finally, I would give students another formal writing assignment (like the one they
received in step one). I would use this data point to compare with the first and
see if there was a change and whether or not the change was a positive one
(meaning their grades improved).

The interview data collection process will follow the following steps:
I would be interviewing my students at three different points in the research process, which are:
1. Before the project is even introduced to them (so before I tell them that social media will
be entered into the curriculum for the term). I would focus on asking questions to the
class about their social media levels (how often do they use social media), which social
media platforms they use most frequently and why, and what suggestions they have for
incorporating social media/technology into the classroom and assignments.
a. For this portion of the interview process, I would focus on implementing the group
interview process and create small “focus groups” within each class period. I
would encourage small “[…] groups of between three and six people […]” (Griffin
185) as is recommended within Research Methods for English Studies. Once
students are in their small groups, they would be encouraged to discuss with
their group-mates the answers to these posed questions and work together to
come up with realistic suggestions for the implementation of these platforms
within the classroom/assignments.
2. During the research process, about one week after technology and social media have
been embedded into the curriculum and assignments to assess how students are feeling
about the work and gauge whether or not they are beginning to see an impact (whether
it is positive or negative) on their performance in the class.
a. To start this process, I will be providing students with an independent
survey/questionnaire to complete that will have set questions and set responses.
Once students have completed the designated questionnaire, we will open up a
structured discussion about the survey results and why students feel the way that
they do, why did they answer a certain way, etc.
3. Once the research project has been completed and the qualitative data has been
collected to see how students feel and to get their opinions on the data – do they think it
is correctly representative of their experience in the class and with this experiment? Did
they feel a positive change throughout the process? Would they recommend keeping
this format within the classroom in the future and/or encourage this change to occur
school-wide?
b. Griffin explains interviewing as something that “[…] lends itself to gaining an
understanding of the articulated perceptions of the interviewees […]” (183).
Through this statement, it is clear that hearing from the interviewees, in my case
the subjects of my research, can shine a light on the data that I have collected
and ensure that this data is accurate and not just a fluke. Students would have
the opportunity to be open and honest about whether this worked well for them
 and enhanced their academics or if it hindered their education because it created
more of a distraction for them. This would be done in a whole-group discussion
format and would only be semi-structured. The reason that it is only semi-
structured is because I will have a generated list of opening questions, but there
will be no time constraint and we will not be relegated to only the posed
questions – meaning students will be able to ask follow up questions and go off
the beaten path for a more free-form and natural, honest discussion.

NOTE: As you can see, there are some overlap between these two different data
collection processes and some of these tasks will overlap with each other;
however, I wanted to separate them out so that you can see the difference in each
type of data collection. This will also make it easier for future research to take
place if one wants to repeat these trials and/or further the findings.

BROADER SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPOSAL

In general, this research, as is, without delving further into the subject, will prove
significant to other educators that are also interested in improving their students’ writing
performance on academic/formal writing tasks. Along with this, though, this research
project and its potential results, open doors for further investigation into the
development of language discourse and the correlation it has with student achievement.
If the research is unsuccessful and proves that there is no direct correlation between
students’ social media writing and formal writing, then this would create more
opportunities for further research into the why behind the decrease in student
performance over the years. For instance, other potential avenues might include, but
are not limited to: the correlation between the increase in video game culture and the
decrease in academic writing and/or the correlation between the increase in phone
usage (as a whole – texting, apps, etc.) and the decrease in academic writing. If my
research pans out and does determine a correlation between social media usage and
formal writing achievement, then future research could include expanding the scope to
see how social media usage impacts other components in education, not just formal
writing. For instance, one could determine the impact social media usage has on the
scientific process or the understanding of government, etc.

SOURCES

Griffin, Gabriele. Research Methods for English Studies. Edinburgh University Press,
2013.
Neal, Diane Rasmussen. “Social Media for Academics.” Elsevier Science & Technology, 6 Aug.
2012, doi:10.1533/9781780633190.

Omoera, Osakue Stevenson, et al. “Impact of Social Media on the Writing Abilities of Ambrose
Alli University Undergraduates in Ekpoma-Nigeria.” GiST Education and Learning
Research Journal, no. 17, 2018, pp. 59–80., doi:10.26817/16925777.412.

Poe, Marshall T. A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of
Speech to the Internet. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Sadauskas, John. “Improving Adolescent Writing Quality and Motivation with Sparkfolio,
a Social Media Based Writing Tool.” Arizona State University, Arizona State
University, 2014.