Digital literacy as a tool for self-authoring: teaching reluctant student writers through "redesign"

Abstract

Academic writing is a challenging task for students because of the complex stylistic and generic conventions associated with it. This is particularly problematic in the context of the diversity of backgrounds our students bring to higher education. In this article we report on our experiences and findings as teachers-researchers with a course that we designed and taught over a period of three academic years to Mexican university students who were considered as ‘failing writers’ given their inability to write a research paper or ‘thesis’ required for graduation. The thesis underlying our teaching was that these students needed to experience what it feels like to enact a personal voice through writing. This could be achieved through a range of unconventional modes and genre formats before they could try on the culturally distant genre of expository-argumentative academic writing. We found that our participants discovered themselves as expressive and creative beings as we engaged them in activities designed according to the principles of self-authoring digital practices (Hull & Katz, 2006) through the redesign of available designs (New London Group, 1996).

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