Social Networking Sites are web-based applications that allow indivudals to meet new people, reconect with people from their past, and stay connected with people they know. Facebook (facebook.com) and MySpace (myspace.com) are the two most used sites in the US. Some social networking sites are based upon common interests (movies, LGBT, nationality). They are also being used commercially to promote politicians, products, and artists (signed and independant alike). The basic element of social networking is the profile page which allows individuals to decide how they will present themselves to audience. These sites promote communication among "friends"--who may or may not be people you know from face-to-face discourse--and others in a network--a group based upon people with similarities (location, occupation, interests). Communication often ranges from writing to other users, announcing face-to-face events, and playing games.

Tools:
MySpace (myspace.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
Wikipedia: Social Networking Sites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites)--Clearinghouse of social networking sites.

Scholarship:

• Since social networking sites are emerging genre, one can study the develop of this genre, such as comparing commercial profiles to individual user profiles and how they influence each other.
• Since students often use these technologies before they get to their first college level writing courses, one can study the deliberate decisions students are making to compose their subjectivities and what rhetorical strategies can carry over to their academic writing.

Teaching:
This is a suggested assignment.

The Genre of Social Networking

Purpose
Genre is an important feature of the texts we compose; it helps the audience read the text because once they recognize the type of text, the audience will know what to expect this text to contain and what purposes this text should accomplish. If these expectations are not met, then an audience may experience confusion or frustration. On the other hand, a writer who wants to make a certain point may purposely alter the genre because the genre is too constraining to support the writer’s point (thus the short report grew out of the need to produce documents longer than a memo and shorter than a full-length report) or the writer wants to draw attention to the point being made (think Shrek’s play on fairy tales). Therefore, as a writer it is important to understand genre and how to can use it to influence your reader’s response to a text. With this assignment you will examine an emerging genre, social networking sites, and articulate the genre for an audience of your peers as a way to think about how writers use generic expectations to communicate meaning to their audiences.

Research
How current users compose on these social networking sites influences both how audiences are reading (or experiencing) peoples’ profile pages and how new users of these sites are choosing to compose their own sites. For this project you and three other students will look at several profile pages on different social networking sites and determine the patterns that are emerging for this genre. To do this…

• Go to a social networking site. Facebook (facebook.com) and MySpace (myspace.com) are the two obvious places to begin. Also go to the clearinghouse of social networking sites on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites). You may need to click around to find backdoors to individual profiles.
• You may choose to register for one or more of these sites. While this will provide more access to more profiles, you can still do this assignment without being a member of one of these sites. You should only register for those sites you may be interested in participating on at a later date.
• Each group member will be required to study at least five profiles, preferably from at least two different social networking sites. You may not choose your own profile or a group member’s, and you should study no more than one friend’s profile (The purpose of the assignment is to expand beyond your current knowledge).
• Examine the purpose of the site. Is it designed around a specific theme? Or for a specific constituent? Keep this in mind as you examine the specific profiles, this will influence what the people can do when they compose their profiles, as well as the decisions they have made.
• Study the profile you have chosen, take notes of the features that appear on this site. As you are trying to determine patterns, ask questions like…
• What features appear on every site? (If you have registered to a social network, look at the fields that are required)
• What features are optional? Which of these optional features do people tend to use? Assuming that the person in the profile is the person who has posted the profile, what do you notice about who chooses certain features over others?
• What decisions are the composers of these profiles making about how they talk about themselves?
• Regroup with your other members and share what you have learned. From your twenty examples (minimum), determine the patterns that you see emerging?

Writing
To present your findings, your group will compose a short report and give a slideware presentation to the class. As you compose both of these texts, think about your peers as your audience

For the report…

• Start with a paragraph or two that explains the overall major patterns that your group has found. At this point you want to be fairly general about your findings. Then for each of your major findings briefly explain to your audience how they should approach this feature and, using some specific examples from your research, why they should make this decision. The instructor will cover the genre of a short report.
• Write 1500-2000 words, so you will have to decide which patterns you think are the most important and which ones to leave out. Also you will have to carefully choose which examples to support your points.

For the presentation…

• Develop slides that reflect the report. You do not want to dump the report word-for-word into your slide presentation. Instead you will want to briefly summarize the points that you have made in the report. Again you will have to make decisions about what is important. The instructor will cover the genre of a slideware presentation.
• Compose a 15 minute presentation in which each group member has a speaking role.

Evaluation Criteria
The instructor will be looking for evidence of the following…

• An understanding of genre and how it applies to social networking profiles
• An understanding of your peer audience. Do you write this so that they will understand it? Do you write it so that they will not be frustrated trying to understand what you have written (think grammatical errors)?
• An academic persona; this means you should adopt a professional tone and publish a well-edited paper.
• An understanding of the composing decisions that you made. Can your group explain the decisions that you all made for the report and the presentation?
• Patterns that are well supported by evidence from actual profiles.
• Genre expectations that are reliable. Can your audience go to a series of social network profiles and see these patterns?
• Texts that comply with the genre of a short report and slideware presentation, respectively.
• Collaboration; did each group members contribute equally to the process?