Kristen Vogel
Assignments & Activities Archive
Assignment Description
In every course I teach, I work to instill in students the understanding that Standard English is merely one variety among many, rather than a superior form. In this assignment, students are asked to write an essay that analyzes the “grammar” of their own writing in a non-academic text. Students often choose to analyze journal entries, text messages, social media posts, and forum posts (such as on reddit). To make up the bulk of the essay, I ask them to consider what rules they follow in this writing. For instance, how do they capitalize and punctuate sentences? What vocabulary do they use (shortened forms, invented words, discourse community-specific)? How do they structure their ideas? Do they use emojis, images, or other non-text (multimodal) ways to communicate? All these rules can be classified as grammar. What is interesting about this assignment is that it invites students to recognize this sort of writing, often devalued in higher education, as full of complex choice and meaning. In their analysis, students may note the difference that a period makes at the end of a text message or how placing a certain emoji after a sentence will entirely change its tone. Additionally, students will see that their awareness of text messaging, blogging, and social media rules, to give a few examples, is specialized knowledge; it is genre awareness, in other words. By asking students to decode their chosen non-academic genre of writing, they are given the tools to decode more traditional genres of writing. This allows them the opportunity to think critically about the supposed superiority of Standard English. We tend to think of Standard English as the only variety that follows grammar rules, with all other varieties breaking those rules. However, with this assignment, my hope is that students recognize that all writing follows its own internal grammar. Someone who may be an excellent writer in Standard English may miss the nuances of text message communication completely. This essay works well as a 1500-2100-word assignment, but it can be adapted to various lengths. I also ask students to include at least 3 outside sources to support their arguments. I provide the articles listed below under Materials, which they are welcome to use if they apply to their chosen topic.