Interface Analysis

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate an ability to employ and discuss the digital-rhetorical concepts we've discussed in relation to a writing interface.
• Reflect an analytical and critical stance toward writing technology.

Description

In this essay, you will critically analyze a writing interface of your choosing using the concepts we've discussed this semester. Questions you should respond to include:

• In what ways does the writing interface demonstrate and encourage "digital rhetoric"? You should introduce your understanding of the definition of digital rhetoric based on our course texts.
• What are the "politics" of the interface? What audiences is it designed for? For whom does it exclude  or discourage access? You can consider these questions through the lenses of accessibility, ideology, and / or economics.
• What are the affordances of the interface for different types of writing? What types of writing does it request, demand, encourage, discourage, deny, and allow?
• What communication modes, beyond language / text, are encouraged and / or discouraged?
• Where does writing circulate using this interface? Where does the writing go? What are the rhetorical effects of that movement?
• Finally, to what degree do algorithms factor into the interface, and what are their effects?

You should not simply answer these questions one by one. Rather, you should use these questions to develop an argument about the design of the interface and its effect on writing practices.

In your analysis, you should consider both the interface itself (in other words, use it and experiment with it) as well as other, related texts, such as reviews and / or documentation for how the interface works.

Requirements

• You should cite a minimum of three course readings in this essay, not including Wikipedia entries or the Evergreen notes readings.
• The final version of this essay should be 1,000-1,200 words. (The draft should be a minimum of 750.)
• You should incorporate both quotations and paraphrases of external sources.
• The essay should be formatted according to MLA style and include both in-text citations and Works Cited page.