my new favorite paragraph i've ever written

In classroom with videogame playing students, discussing the proper usage of “pwnd” (there are several other spellings) in a videogame is a good way to discuss insider and outsider status based on language usage.  In a videogame, when a player obliterates or decimates their opponent, quickly defeats, or in many various ways beats their opponents (the actual activity really depends on the game) the winner will taunt the loser by saying “you got pwnd,” or simply “pwnage.”  In some videogames, “pwnd” is simply “owned” misspelled and popularized amongst videogame players.  Misusing the term signals your status as a new player to that game.  Correctly using and defeating an opponent show your advanced status.  Correctly using terms in academia signal membership in similar ways.  As instructors, we’ve all read the paper where a student used a thesaurus to increase the syllables of every other word in their paper.  Having a thesaurus tool available through word processing programs is detrimental to the writing of some students, especially when they believe increasing the syllables is all that is necessary to increase the level of argument in their paper.  Instead, as instructors, we see their usage of terms as demonstrating their novice status within the community, just like misusing “pwnd.”  Discussing the proper usage of terminology, the proper use of applications within word processing programs, and the proper layout for papers and how these skills make up practices within academic digital literacy can all be bridged from discussions about “pwnage.”

romance reception

Romance Reading on the Internet


Nicole Pfannenstiel







Often referred to as bodice rippers, the Romance novel genre continues to be one of the bestselling book genres in the US. The genre is overlooked at best, and maligned at worst, especially by critics. As so many books continue to sell, how do romance readers find the books they want to read, and what do they do once they’ve read them. In the age of new media, romance readers no longer have to find their bookstore version of Dot (Radway), they can now scour the internet to find a community that meets their romance reading needs. Looking specifically at a GoodReads (goodreads.com) Romance reading community, this paper will discuss how moderators and participants create and sustain community within the subgroup to encourage connections through internet technology. To discuss how GoodReads romance readers simultaneously try to find satisfying books and rescue a genre, current theories of audience receptions (Mailloux, Bratich and Jenkins) will be used to discuss the ways readers of romance approach the texts and discuss the texts. Within this discussion, participants and moderators inhabit contested space simply based on the genre they choose to read. The ways participants reconcile their participation in that space creates complex interactions that ultimately deal with the love of a heroine and hero. The ways participants discuss romance novels, their reading of romance novels, and their reception of romance novels will be discussed as the key elements that create and sustain a complex virtual community on GoodReads.

literacy examples

for a paper i'm re-writing, trying to provide more concrete examples of academic literacy and the way it presumes understanding of how to 'act' literate.  that theoretical discussion goes first, more new media examples will go after this section.  hopefully it sounds good.

Seeing literacy as tied to action as well as reading and writing is important. My mom tells a story of eating breakfast with an Uncle. He sat down at the restaurant, picked up the menu, appeared to peruse it. He then ordered the same meal as someone else at the table, which did not seem odd. It wasn’t until a few days later that she learned he was illiterate. Instead of drawing attention to his inability to read the menu to select a meal, he simply followed the traditional actions, then ordered the same meal as someone else. My mom had no idea he was illiterate.


This example doesn’t help with freshmen college students, who should be more literate. I have a friend who completed an online course recently. The course consisted of reading text books, notes provided by the professor, completing online quizzes, and then two major exams. The professor asked a lengthy (expecting a 5 page response) quiz question, then re-asked the same question on the exam. Every student who re-used their quiz answer received a zero. At no time during the semester were academic integrity issues discussed, the professor assumed students understood self-plagiarism, so felt it was fair to reuse a test question. In this case, students became victim of the problem with how academic integrity is approached in college classes today. Instead of devoting online space to discussing academic integrity, the professor assumes students are aware, and then punishes students by giving them zero’s when they exhibit the wrong behavior. There is no way for students to simply order what someone else is, and pretend to read a menu to pass the literacy test in academia. Instead, they must always present the correct identity when displaying their literacy surrounding academic integrity at the college level.