This is where I first narrowed my topic to student-run class group chats and connected it to genre, audience, tone, digital literacy, and peer support.
Proposal
For my research project this semester, I am interested in studying how college students use class group chats to communicate about assignments, deadlines, confusion, and academic stress. My main research question is: How do college students use class group chats to clarify course expectations and support each other outside of official classroom spaces? Some smaller questions I want to consider are: What kinds of messages do students usually send in class group chats? How do students decide whether to ask a question in the group chat instead of emailing the professor? How do tone, humor, reactions, and short replies affect the way students understand each other? I am interested in this because class group chats are a normal part of college for many students, but they are not always treated as important forms of writing. Even though the messages are usually short and informal, they can still affect how students understand assignments and participate in a course.
This topic connects to Writing Studies because it deals with digital literacy, audience, genre, and rhetorical situation. A class group chat has its own expectations. Students usually know that they can ask quick questions, send reminders, complain a little, or help each other understand what is going on. At the same time, they may avoid sounding too confused, too demanding, or too annoying. That means students are still making rhetorical choices, even if the writing does not look like an essay. They are thinking about audience, purpose, timing, and tone.
Chloé LaRochelle’s article “Liking in Group Messaging: Perception versus Meaning” is useful for my project because she studies group messaging as a serious form of communication. LaRochelle argues that the meaning of the like button in group messaging depends heavily on context rather than having one fixed meaning (31). This connects to my topic because class group chats also rely on context. For example, a thumbs-up reaction could mean agreement, confirmation, acknowledgment, or just “I saw this.” LaRochelle’s method also gives me a model for my own research because she uses both a survey and transcript analysis to compare what students think a feature means with how it is actually used (33). I may not be able to analyze full transcripts because of privacy concerns, but I could still use a survey or interviews to ask students how they understand different kinds of group chat messages.
Marissa Penzato’s “Fanfiction, Poetry, Blogs, and Journals” also helps me think about this topic because she studies writing that happens outside traditional academic assignments. Penzato explains that students participate in multiple discourse communities and that writing practices can connect across those communities and genres (10–11). Her article makes me think that class group chats should not be dismissed just because they are informal. They may not be polished academic writing, but they still involve communication, collaboration, and learning. Penzato’s article also challenges the idea that student writers are only “inexperienced” because some young writers use complex planning and revision strategies outside school (23). In a similar way, students in class group chats may be using more thoughtful communication strategies than they are usually given credit for.
For further inquiry, I need to learn more about digital literacy, discourse communities, and informal academic communication. I also want to look into how students use genres like emails, texts, and online discussion posts differently depending on the audience. This could help me compare class group chats to more official forms of school communication. I may also research how students use peer support when they are confused about assignments, since group chats often become unofficial places where students explain instructions to each other.
For primary research, I think the most realistic method would be a short anonymous survey of college students. I could ask whether they have used class group chats, what platforms they use, what they usually talk about, and whether those chats help them understand assignments. I could also ask students how comfortable they feel asking questions in a group chat compared to asking a professor directly. If possible, I might interview a few students to get more detailed answers about how they decide what to say and how they interpret other people’s messages. I would avoid collecting names or private screenshots unless participants clearly consented, because group chats can include personal or sensitive conversations.
Overall, I want this project to show that informal digital writing can still matter in academic life. Class group chats may seem casual, but they can shape how students understand assignments, manage confusion, and build support systems. By studying this topic, I hope to better understand how students use writing outside official course spaces to help themselves and each other succeed.
Instructor Feedback and Next Decision
That feedback changed the method I eventually used. Instead of collecting private screenshots or directly analyzing conversations involving people who had not consented, I conducted semi-structured interviews, removed course names, and identified the five participants as P1 through P5.
Works Cited
LaRochelle, Chloé. “Liking in Group Messaging: Perception Versus Meaning.” Stylus, vol. 8, no. 2, 2017, pp. 31–43, cah.ucf.edu/writingrhetoric/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2019/10/Stylus_8_2_LaRochelle.pdf.
Penzato, Marissa. “Fanfiction, Poetry, Blogs, and Journals: A Case Study of the Connection between Extracurricular and Academic Writings.” Stylus, vol. 3, no. 1, 2012, pp. 10–24, cah.ucf.edu/writingrhetoric/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2019/10/stylus_3_1_Penzato.pdf.