Blake Dickey

Writ 1133

Dr. Kara Taczak

October 20th, 2015

Primary Research Report on “Keyboard Warriors”

I have found many secondary sources thus far pertaining to the nature and actions of the

infamous “Keyboard Warriors”. However, a vast majority of them lack the hard raw data to

back up their claims. Many of the sources I have found are articles from newspapers discussing

current events relating to a particular controversial political topic, and usually including a

description of the responses from Keyboard Warriors, both negative and positive… mostly

negative. I did, however, find a few published works that provided studies done on them. Still,

even in these descriptions they fail to discuss much of the actual content posted by Keyboard

Warriors, and really only mention the levels of audacity and passion that they perpetuate.

Additionally, many of the articles I have found, were written by authors living in a variety of

different countries. The pro of this being that it allows me to assess the consistency of Keyboard

Warriors worldwide. It has been difficult finding sources that directly discuss or acknowledge

the American Keyboard Warriors.

One source I found was an article in the technical publication, “CSI: Communications”

from CSI (Computer Society of India), in which they made a distinction between trolls and

Keyboard Warriors. In this particular section, they went over and discussed some of the cyber

laws relating to trolls in India. A “troll” is defined in the article as a subtype of Keyboard

Warriors, trolls use the shield of anonymity to express their inner aggressions online. Mentioned

in the article was one study, done by the canadian school University of Manitoba, that found

“...trolls exhibit the personality traits of narcissists, psychopaths and sadists – taking pleasure in

the suffering of others and lacking remorse or empathy for their victims.” (Mali. P, pgs. 36­37).

This is of course referring to the more malevolent subset of Keyboard Warriors, representing the

extremes on both sides. This is useful in that it sheds some light on the depth of the term

Keyboard Warrior, saying that there are different subtypes of them. This source is also useful

because it backs up its findings and claims with credible studies, as well as using those studies to

help describe and draw some conclusions about trolls. However, this same article does also

express some views and descriptions that would be considered to be “ignorant” or “dated” in the

United States. For instance, the motivators that trolls are said to have for “trollling” include,

“...having an abusive childhood, Mental illness / Mental Health Problems, Homosexuals in

denial, Social Outcasts or are Sexual Predators.” (Mali. P, pgs. 36). In the modern United States,

making attributions like these about someone’s behavior would be very looked down upon.

According to this article, India has even gone so far as to making laws that outlaw trolling. They

did so by making it illegal to really post or message anything offensive via computer or

communication device, punishable by 3 years of imprisonment. I will be using this source.

One source that I found that has proved to be both thorough and reliable was the book,

“Paradoxes of Individualization : Social Control and Social Conflict in Contemporary

Modernity”. Parts of this book actually go into a decent amount of depth concerning the mindset

that Keyboard Warriors have. This book also discusses them when considering the virtual

community as a whole. It even goes so far as to discuss the relations and tendencies between

people who meet online and then meet in person offline. This book uses various studies to help

investigate certain political stigmas found online. In particular, it was found that people

expressing conservative beliefs online, whether on social medias, forums, blogs, or in online

discussions, were commonly ostracized and faced social exclusion. Especially those holding far

right­wing to far right­wing extremist views, they tended to be ostracized online and offline,

being asked things like, “Why are you a dirty nazi?”, and being called, “brainless and stupid”.

However, this is being taken out of context. These right­wing extremists being talked about in

this book are, in fact, extreme. Found on the forum, Stormfront, they discuss topics concerning

racism, nazism, neonazism, to name a few, but did so in a praising manner. The book talks about

how the right­wing extremists are the ones giving modern conservatism a bad name. I found this

using DU’s online library catalog, and will be using this source.

Both of the above sources listed countless references over the entirety of the composition.

One source that I have found that I am still unsure of about using at this point is the book,

Democratizing Communication? by Bailie Winseck. This source does have a solid amount of

information pertaining to my topic, however some of the information may be outdated. The

book was published in 1997, which is just a year short of being twenty years, or two decades old.

Since the book was published, countless advances in technology have come and gone, the flip

phone was still relatively new at this day and age. Since 1997, even our culture has undergone

some pretty drastic changes, particularly concerning our reliance on mobile phones. Although

this source is older, it still maintains some relevant points.

One source that I found, and will not be using, was an article titled, “Trouble with

Tranny”. The reason I will not be using this source is that the center of focus in the article is

largely that of a leftist political bias, and is focused on transvestism in politics. The article lacks

in depth and specific information that connects their ideas to social medias. Overall, although

from a credible journal, Studies in Gender and Sexuality, this source does not quite fit the

purpose of my research.

Of the sources that I have found, a general trend seems to be that a majority of the

Keyboard Warriors are comprised of youths. Another trend seems to be that an overwhelming

majority of Keyboard Warriors are supporters of the far left ideologies in terms of politics. Even

when narrowing my search and searching a number of different keywords and using various

combinations, I was only able to find a small handful of sources that were mostly politically

neutral, and so far I have found zero publishings directly discussing conservative activism in

social medias. Any sources relating to conservative activism in social medias almost exclusively

represented the religious aspect of conservatism, which was usually attacked or attempted to be

debased. Additionally, these sources were much more heavily focused on religion than politics

in general. Some holes present in my secondary research are sources containing specific

statistics of Keyboard Warriors, as well as their effect on society. I could also use a couple of

sources that analyze the psychological aspect of Keyboard Warriors. These sources were found

using Google Scholar and the University of Denver, Anderson Academic Commons Library

Catalog.

I encountered similar results when scouring facebook for political activists. Thus far, I

have found a very limited number of alleged conservatives that actively defend their beliefs. I

have found a strong, but not an overwhelming, number of alleged liberals that perpetuate the

stereotypical Keyboard Warrior when defending their beliefs. I have been searching for

Keyboard Warriors by going on Facebook pages of friends that have either made their political

stance very clear, or was previously known to me, and then looking through their news feed to

find any politically sensitive posts or shares, and then checking the comments section to see if

anybody of the opposite ideology commented.

References:

Mali, P. (2015). Trolls, Trolling, & Cyber Law. CSI: Communications, 38(10), 36­37. Retrieved November 1, 2015, from http://www.csinihilent­egovernanceawards.org/csidocuments/E­Governance­Brochure2013­14.pdf#page=36

Houtman, D., & Aupers, S. (2011). Paradoxes of individualization social control and social conflict in contemporary modernity. Farnham: Ashgate.

Heklina, T. (2015). The Trouble With Tranny. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 142­143.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15240657.2015.1038201#aHR0cDovL3d3dy50YW5kZm9ubGluZS5jb20vZG9pL3BkZi8xMC4xMDgwLzE1MjQwNjU3LjIwMTUuMTAzODIwMUBAQDA=

Bailie, M. (1997). Democratizing communication?: Comparative perspectives on information and power. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press.

Blake Dickey

Writ 1133

Dr. Kara Taczak

October 30th, 2015

Keyboard Warriors: Do you even type bro?

Introduction: Why does it seem to be that the loudest voice in the room, is usually seen

as the right one? The answer is really quite simple actually, confidence. When somebody

expresses a high level of passion on a particular subject, accompanied by a steadfast confidence,

public opinion seems to favor their views over the opposition, especially in subjective matters.

Whether or not they have factual evidence to back them up, they will be favored. In today’s

society, the infamous Keyboard Warriors will often fill this niche. Keyboard Warriors are

today’s political voice of the people and leading force in ensuring social justice for all, or at

least, that’s how they view themselves. They are the ranters and ravers of the internet, looking

for any cause “worthy” enough to defend. Keyboard Warriors can be identified by their high

displays of confidence online, borderlining on arrogance. This can be seen in their comments

that are several paragraphs long on a status or post done by someone else. However, all of their

work is done from behind the “screens”, at a distance from their foes, in the safety and comfort

of their own homes. My question is: how real is their confidence? Specifically, how real is it

when in an offline setting? In this situation, I am defining “real” in terms of depth and

consistency. My goal is to find out if this confidence is real, through and through, or simply an

online facade. I’m curious to know the accuracy of the content of what they post, as well as if

they're as confrontational in person. I hypothesize that the difference in their confidence levels

will, in general, will vary greatly when observed online and offline. (Come back later and add

citations)

Methods: All research was conducted on the University of Denver campus. In order to

investigate this question, I utilized two main methods of research to help me draw my

conclusions. I will be using two 8 question surveys filled with general questions to find some

basic statistics surrounding Keyboard Warriors and how they correlate to online activism.

Examples of questions include; “What gender do you identify with? A.) Male B.) Female C.)

Other” and “Which of the following most closely describes your political affiliations? A.)

Liberal B.) Moderate C.) Conservative D.) Libertarian E.) Green Party F.) Other”. A link to each

survey was then posted online, each into 3 different facebook groups. A total of 40 responses

were collected, 15 from survey 1, and 25 from survey 2. Those who responded did so by choice.

In both surveys I used a few different methods in attempts to keep my surveys unbiased. First

off, I didn’t use negative adjectives to sway opinions. Secondly, I offered a variety of responses

for most questions to make them think about their answers by (hopefully) reading each answer.

Lastly, I tried to order the answers in a very linear way to avoid showing favoritism for a

particular answer. The second part of my primary research consisted of directly interviewing

some people that I personally know to be Keyboard Warriors, as well as the people who bait

them. I interviewed 4 people, 2 liberals and 2 conservatives. An example of a question I used

would be, “How knowledgeable would you consider yourself to be on current political matters,

such as economics, social justice, and environmental sustainability?”. Almost every single

question I asked had at least 2 purposes for being asked. The question above is looking to assess

confidence, as well as knowledgeability. This question is also a setup for the next question

which asks how knowledgeable they are compared to the general public and DU/College

Students. (add more)

Results & Data:

The Surveys

From the first survey, a total of 15 people responded, 7 males and 8 females. Of this

sample, 14 of them answered that Facebook is one of the two social medias that they use most,

and instagram came in second with 9 responses. One trend I found was that every test subject

has seen politically sensitive posts on facebooks, and most of them answered that they do quite

often, and 73% answered that they never comment on them. However, only 40% percent of

those surveyed said that they never post politically sensitive material on social medias, which

can be seen in table 1.1. Additionally, 60% of participants said that these posts do result in an

online political discussion at least sometimes, this can be seen in table 1.2.

Table 1.1: “How often do you post things of a political nature?”

Table1.2: “How often do these posts result in an online political discussion?”

Moreover, this survey almost rendered an even distribution of responses from liberals,

moderates, and conservatives. The last question I asked on this survey asked for three adjectives

to describe Keyboard Warriors, and this rendered zero responses that used positive adjectives.

Examples of responses included adjectives such as, opinionated, condescending, insane,

inconsiderate, liberal, and asinine to name a few.

From the second survey, a total of 25 people responded, 9 males and 16 females, and had

an average age of 20. It was found that Facebook is believed to carry the vast majority of online

social activism, however, tumblr received an honorable mention of 12% or 3 votes. In terms of

political affiliations, liberals and moderates account for 72% of responders, while conservatives

only account for 16% of responders. One question I asked was, “What are your beliefs

concerning ‘political correctness’?” (Table 2.1), and it can be seen that nobody indicated that

they believe it should be stricter. I asked this question in search of left extremists, because of the

current stereotype of Keyboard Warriors being left extremists. The results of the following

question can be seen in table 2.2, this question served the same purpose as the latter. In table 2.2,

it can be seen that 68% of respondents answered that people who choose not to be “PC”, should

simply be ignored. I chose this question in search of responses from those further on the

right­wing, giving them the third and fourth possible answers as bait. Tables 2.1 and 2.2 can be

seen at the top of the next page.

Table 2.1: “What are your beliefs concerning ‘political correctness’?”

Table 2.2: “What should be done about those who choose to not be ‘politically correct’?”

In this survey, it was found that 56% of respondents believe that people who identify as liberal

are the most reactive on social medias, as in that they are the Keyboard Warriors. Only 32%

answered conservatives, and the other 12% indicated an other option but no two answers were

the same.

The Interviews

The responses collected from the interview questions were by far the most insightful. Of

the people interviewed, 3 of them were male and 1 was female. Half of the people interviewed

claimed to be conservative and the other half claimed to be liberal in terms of political

affiliations. Everyone that I interviewed claimed to believe that they are generally more

knowledgeable and up to date than the general public in terms of politics in economics, social

justice, and environmental sustainability. Only one person interviewed claimed to be more

significantly more knowledgeable than other college students in general. All but one person

interviewed answered that they never post things online that they wouldn’t be comfortable with

saying to someone in person. One participant said, “Definitely. The internet is a safety net to

hide behind for most people, and I believe I take advantage of that often.”. Most participants

claimed to be mostly up to date with the news and have done their research. For most of the

questions, responses varied between each participant.

Discussion:

The responses that I obtained from the two surveys I conducted provided very little

insight concerning the actual behavior and confidence of Keyboard Warriors. The surveys were

helpful in finding the general public’s beliefs about them and how they’re viewed. The results of

the two surveys support that, in general, the belief is that the majority of Keyboard Warriors

posting politically sensitive things on Facebook, and other social media, are politically liberal.

The majority of participants responded that they politically affiliate as liberal, which augments

this finding. In most circumstances, opposing parties will point the finger at their rival.

Responses from the interviews helped to shed some light on the answer to my questions.

From what I have gathered based on the provided answers in the interviews, my sample

answered that they do not engage strangers that they disagree with in political discussion, online

and offline. All of them answered that the person they’re debating with has to be at least some

sort of acquaintance. This supports that for the most part, Keyboard Warriors’ confidence stays

consistent online and offline. Additionally, it supports that the Keyboard Warriors are generally

well informed, but every participant admitted that they have flaws in their prior knowledge of

many subjects they come across in this.

Interestingly enough, both of the participants that identified as conservative, exhibited

strong feelings concerning the perceived political ostracism of the right received from the left.

Several studies have been done that have found that right­wing politics, especially in the

extremes, are often time oppressed to the point of not sharing beliefs outside of specialized

forums. One study even found, “Many contributors of the forum indicate that their right­wing

extremist identities are met with strong condemnation by people in their social surroundings.

For several members, this even applies to their small family circle.”, and the paragraph went on

to say that these members are even asked “Why are you a dirty Nazi?”. This shows that this

activism in social media may be more from the general public of moderate­liberals, and less so

from the real Keyboard Warriors.

However, I began my research with an inherent bias that I did not even realize I had up

until after I had finished my research. I began with the bias and assumption that everybody

viewed Keyboard Warriors to be as much of a nuisance as I do. However, when viewed in a

more favorable light, they are actually seen by some as people working to change the world for

the better, one bit at a time from the comfort of their own homes. One such view expressed was

“Facebook needs the support and trust of its users to survive. This is what gives users the power

to shape and inform the nature of the public spaces social media sites have become.” (Roux, pg.

41). She goes on to discuss that Facebook in this day and age serves as a platform for

expression. This goes to show that although some believe that the people perceived to be

Keyboard Warriors, may not even be ones at all. It has come to my attention that what I saw as

cowardice, may have actually just been a matter of opportunity. These people could simply just

be standing up for what they believe in and nothing more. People could be choosing to take

advantage of the anonymity and/or the computer screen as a shield, solely because they fear

physical altercation. According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, when the second tier,

security, is threatened, it makes it much more difficult for someone to focus on and speak freely

about abstract ideas (A. Maslow). In theory, this could help level the playing field, and open up

Facebook and other social medias for more intellectual discussions concerning politics and other

concentrations.

However, with this comes the need to differentiate types of Keyboard Warriors. Because

as is well known by everyone that has used the internet at least once in the past 5 years, not

everyone you meet online is nice. From my research I have found that there are three main

subtypes of Warriors, with the main difference in each type being the level of aggression that

they exhibit online. The most aggressive subtype of Keyboard Warriors are “trolls”. Mentioned

in the article was one study, done by the canadian school University of Manitoba, found that,

“...trolls exhibit the personality traits of narcissists, psychopaths and sadists – taking pleasure in

the suffering of others and lacking remorse or empathy for their victims.” (Mali. P, pgs. 36­37).

In other words, for trolls, the discussion is not about winning or losing, but more so about just

pissing off the other person as much as they can. They tend to utilize personal attacks over cold

hard evidence. They also differ in that they tend to have a heavier presence on social medias

such as youtube and reddit, and other places they can be truly anonymous without having to

worry about immediate repercussions. Trolling is considered to be a form of cyberbullying.

Next, there is the passionate political Keyboard Warrior, this type has been generally shown to

be comprised of youths. Youths are considered to be anyone still cognitively developing that is

part of the Millennial generation, or generation Y. The Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences

defines them as, “Youth are said to be 46 percent of the total global population and can be

defined as a person who is still in their formative years, undergoing character modelling,

personality development and sometimes receiving training that has to do with human capital

development. Youth is an important human capital development in the process of national

building due to the great potential they have (Kayode 2011).” (Salman, pg. 1). This is during a

point in life that their personal identities have not become completely concrete yet, and

defending their beliefs helps them to make them gradually more concrete internally. Along with

their high familiarity with social medias, this makes them much more likely candidates to

become passionate when defending beliefs online. In part due to their immaturity, when

situations arise that puts them in the position of being wrong, it is common to resort to minor

personal attacks on the opposition. That isn’t to say that it is only the youth that are getting

passionate about political matters. Of course there are perfectly well­adjusted adults who may

get overly passionate while discussing certain topics online, but that can be largely attributed to

situational and personality causes. The last type of Keyboard Warrior is the aforementioned

more passive one that simply appreciates online political discussions for the intellectual

stimulation, along with getting the chance to express their views to their peers.

Limitations & Conclusion This particular topic presented many limitations in both carrying out and analyzing

research. The biggest limitation of this research were the time constraints, as well as being

forced to divide my attention among my other classes during the main researching period. Due

to the nature of this topic being highly analytical, and so little information that can be obtained

that is both useful and reliable, it made this topic difficult to investigate. There were three main

tasks I wanted to complete. The first one being to analyze the accuracy of the information in

their rants posted on social medias. This proved to be difficult in that it was nearly impossible to

obtain a purely random sample that was chosen without bias. The only way of analyzing this,

that I was able to do within the given time constraints, was to include a couple of questions in the

interview portion of my research and an open ended response question in the first survey in

attempts to assess this.

Secondly, I wanted to figure out whether the confidence displayed online carries over

into real life arguments. Even in an actual experiment, this would be very difficult to produce

any sort of reliable results due to the lack of random assortment. Additionally, cultural norms

would have played a huge difference. For instance, it is very common in midwestern and

scandinavian cultures to adopt an outwardly passive stance when in public. This is done in order

to avoid conflict. Oppositely, however, in northeastern and in southeastern cultures it is much

more common to speak out in public, in general, they don’t mind taking part in or viewing a little

bit of conflict.

One other possible limitation can be found within the surveys. The order in which survey

questions are asked can have a huge impact on the answers that participants give. In social

psychology, priming is a term that refers to when a subject is exposed to a stimulus, and the

exposure to that stimulus affects their response to the second stimulus. This applies in that

seeing a certain question first instead of another could have an effect on their response to the

next survey question. It is a very tough call when trying to decide on the order of questions that

would present the least amount of bias relative to the topic. In terms of the question I asked

pertaining to the participants’ political affiliations, it should have either been asked first or last.

If it had been asked first, this would have helped make sure that none of the other demographic

based questions biased their answer, because people make general associations that can affect

their behavior when brought to their attention. These associations can be a variety of things,

even as simple as race, gender, or sexuality. If the question had been asked last, it would have

helped to prevent them being primed with a label of any certain political affiliation, which would

help to prevent them from answering the other questions based on how they believe people of the

same affiliation are supposed to answer.

In conclusion, although some of the research I conducted, both secondary and primary,

did show some mild correlation to my subject, I really lacked the time and resources necessary to

obtain reliable data on this topic. The surveys were much more apt at filling in the gaps of

knowledge concerning how Keyboard Warriors are perceived by the public, as well as other

small helpful details. The results obtained from the interviews would have been more reliable if

the sample size had been greater. To obtain better results, an experiment able to compare the

confidence levels of a known Keyboard Warrior online versus offline (in public) without them

knowing they are being tempted to respond, as well as somehow being able to maintain a random

sample with a large enough sample size, would all be necessary.

References

Roux, K. (2015). Hit them where it hurts ­ tackling Facebook's misogyny problem. Rhodes Journalism Review, (35), 40­42.

Retrieved November 1, 2015, from http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication_article/rujr_n35_a13

Maslow, A. (2007, September 17). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved November 23, 2015, from

http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

Mali, P. (2015). Trolls, Trolling, & Cyber Law. CSI: Communications, 38(10), 36­37. Retrieved November 1, 2015, from

http://www.csinihilent­egovernanceawards.org/csidocuments/E­Governance­Brochure2013­14.pdf#page=36

Salman, A., & Saad, S. (2015). Online Political Participation: A Study of Youth Usage of New Media. MJSS

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences.

Houtman, D., & de, K. W. (2011). Paradoxes of Individualization : Social Control and Social Conflict in Contemporary

Modernity. Farnham, Surrey, GBR: Ashgate Publishing Group. Retrieved from

http://0­www.ebrary.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu

Appendix

Interview Questions:

1. What sort of relationship do you believe exists between politics and social media in our

modern society? What role, if any, do you believe you play in this relationship? What

sort of relationship do you think should exist?

2. How knowledgeable would you consider yourself to be on current political matters, such

as economics, social justice, and environmental sustainability?

3. In general, without singling out a specific demographic, how knowledgeable do you

believe the public, or college students in general, to be on these matters, compared to

yourself?

4. Has online activism become an essential part of modern politics, any specific reasons?

5. Generally, when you see a post containing politically sensitive material on a social

media, how do you respond in terms of your argument? (by doing research first, respond

right away, personal attacks, wait until someone else responds, social pressures/guilt etc.)

6. Do you ever post or comments things online that you wouldn't be as comfortable saying

to someone in person? If so, why?

7. Is there a political affiliation, or demographic, that is more politically active on social

medias than others? If so, why?

8. Do you believe that people (observers or participators) change their beliefs as a result of

online activism?

9. Do you find yourself in political discussions (heated or not) more often in person, or

online?

10. Would you be more likely to get into a heated discussion with someone you know or

don’t know while online?

By signing, you are granting consent for this information to be used as part of a research exercise

that I am completing for a course at the University of Denver. Your participation is completely

voluntary. The information you provide may be used in a class project and/or published in

research writing that I am doing, but your identity will only be known by me and my professor.

Although profile information may be included in my project, your name and the name of the

organization will NOT be used. You may further agree or disagree whether to be recorded via

audio/video for research purposes.

_____ I agree to be recorded via audio with the understanding that the recording will be

destroyed after the research is completed.

_____ I agree to be recorded via video with the understanding that the recording will be

destroyed after the research is completed.

_____ I do not want to be recorded via audio or video.

_____________________________________ (signature)

_____________________________________ (phone / email)

______________ (date)

Link to Survey #2

https://qtrial2015q4az1.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6XPRj3KekGlZOHb

Note: I was unable to keep both links to my surveys open for viewing at the same time.

Additionally, I was unable to copy and paste or take a screenshot of the screen, or email a copy

of it, due to Qualtrics not allowing me to.

Just Newspaper Things

Overview & Conducting Primary Research

Over the course of the past few weeks, I have been researching and investigating some of

the ambiguity surrounding Keyboard Warriors. Keyboard Warriors are activists, usually social

or political, that utilize social medias as a medium to communicate their strongly held beliefs.

This way they are able to speak freely from the safety of their own homes, behind a computer

screen. They are mainly known for using assertive language, social pressures, and

overconfidence to achieve their goals. The purpose of conducting my primary research was to

answer my specific question concerning the depth of the confidence of Keyboard Warriors using

scientific methods. This way the data that I gathered can be analyzed from both a quantitative

and a qualitative perspective. This avoids any conclusions being drawn from sheerly anecdotal

sources, and eliminating the biases of illusory correlation and the confirmation bias. Meaning,

observations made are fair and deliberate, not based off of observations that are made only when

specific conditions arise that fit what the observer is looking for. The purpose of composing our

findings in a new genre is to help decide on the manner to best

communicate the findings from our research.

Target Audience

A larger demographic will be targeted, it will include an increased

age range. Americans aged 19­35 years old, college graduates

specifically. This is still a relatively young demographic, excluding

the middle aged and older. This demographic makes sense because they are young enough to be

more familiar with, and even regularly use, multiple social medias, but are old enough for there

to be a possibility of them being “out of the loop”. Having a college education will help them to

better understand the issues discussed by Keyboard Warriors, as well as making my topic more

relatable to them because, chances are, they have met someone who fits the description of a

keyboard warrior. Additionally, it is still common for people within this age range to read

magazines and news articles.

Projected Genre

I will be utilizing the stylistic aspects of a newspaper/magazine article for this

composition. The reasoning for this is in part due to the general tendencies of the selected

demographic. It is not uncommon for people of this age range, especially for the upper quartile,

to read magazines, to maybe even have a few subscriptions. Magazine articles are typically

written in a more informal style than Journal articles. There are less constants in magazine

articles than there are journal articles. Journal articles are composed of multiples sections with

broader headings, typically including an abstract, methods, data/results, discussion, and a

references section.

Design Plan

This plan is perfect for my topic in that it utilizes a type of media that is capable of

reaching everyone in my target audience, and is a topic relevant enough to them for them to read

it. First off, I would decide on the magazine/newsletter website that would with the highest

following from my target demographic, this would likely be a magazine along the lines of the

Economist or Reader’s Digest. Both of these magazines have largely intellectual follower base,

often times containing articles pertaining to current events in politics, as well as news from social

medias and the internet. Additionally, getting the article published in one of these magazines

would help to give it some credibility in the eyes of readers.

References

Bailie, M. (1997). Democratizing communication?: Comparative perspectives on

information and power. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press.

Heklina, T. (2015). The Trouble With Tranny. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 142­143.

Houtman, D., & Aupers, S. (2011). Paradoxes of individualization social control and

social conflict in contemporary modernity. Farnham: Ashgate.

Roux, K. (2015). Hit them where it hurts ­ tackling Facebook's misogyny problem.

Rhodes Journalism Review, (35), 40­42. Retrieved November 1, 2015, from

http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication_article/rujr_n35_a13

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Blake Dickey

Writ 1133

Dr. Kara Taczak

November 16th, 2015

My Theory of Writing

My Theory of Writing begins always with a purpose or reason to write. Every writer has

some sort of goal in mind when creating a new composition. Usually, an idea or message may

have the need to be communicated. It does not matter where the need comes from, or how

powerful it is, it only matters that it is there. There are two types of need in this situation,

internal and external. Internal need is the writer’s own want to write, whether for fun, to release

internal tensions or stress, or to simply record observations. An example of this would be a

diary, because it is about the writer’s personal motivation to write down their thoughts and

feelings. External need is when a service is needed to be supplied, an example of this could be a

lawyer writing a deposition for an upcoming court case. The writer may not always be

cognitively aware of their exact motivator, they may even be writing just to escape boredom.

Over the past quarter, I have realized that writing is a fluid entity in nature, it can take

form the form of almost any shape. Prior to this class I didn’t see writing as its own entity, I saw

it as a tool or medium of expression. I saw it as a logic diagram, like a reverse tree diagram, with

the topic at the top, and several different options stemming down from it. In a fluid/liquid,

components mix together and form a homogenized solution (I’m excluding mixtures like oil and

water from this rule), although it appears to be uniform, every component plays a part in its

makeup. My high school teachers were the ones who helped me establish the few main axioms I

have in my theory of writing. I had a few teachers in high school that could be considered

‘free­spirited’ or ‘young at heart’, who helped me to realize the versatility of writing. A few of

these teachers taught english, but there were some from almost every subject. The only

exception being math, for obvious reasons. These teachers ingrained it in my brain that writing

is a versatile skill that can be used in a multitude of situations, and in an even greater multitude

of ways. The main way my prior has impacted my writing is by giving me the bias that every

shape and form of writing requires a purpose or goal that needs to be completed (Dickey, Maps

3)

Once there is a purpose, rhetoric is then used to decide how the message/idea should be

communicated in order to accomplish the writer’s goals. It is absolutely necessary to keep the

three key elements of rhetoric in mind when writing, especially when attempting to write

something persuasive. These three elements are audience, genre, and voice.

When targeting an audience, it is important to predict how they will react to the topic, the

message, and the format of the composition in order to attain the desired response. Deciding the

genre gives the composition a loose format and basic guidelines to follow, it helps to target a

more specific demographic of interested people. Finally, the portion I believe to be the most

important aspect to keep in mind is voice. The voice of any composition can make or break the

entire thing. It is made up of word choice, sentence structure, as well as tone. While a certain

genre may initially attract an audience, the voice keeps them reading.

All three components of rhetoric work together, in unison. Genre helps to determine the

audience, knowledge of the audience helps to determine the optimal voice, and the voice can

influence how the genre is perceived by the audience. However, depending on the rhetorical

situation, the relationship of these terms to each other can change. To me, writing in itself really

is more of a method of persuasion.

Even before taking this course, I had a decent conscious understanding of the working

relationship between genre, audience, and voice. Genre was usually determined for me, so in the

past it was something that was just hanging out on my periphery. It was there merely to help me

for formatting and stylistic purposes. I mainly used audience to decide who I wanted to react and

how, and used this to help determine my voice. The voice can also be determined by the context

of the situation. Context is another important aspect of writing. It sets you up, lets you know

where you are and what’s going on in a composition. Bitzer once said, “...context is a general

condition of human communication,”, emphasizing its importance even in everyday life. Having

some sort of context is the basis of every form of communication, from texting to sign language

to speaking. This is the reason why people generally don’t walk up to two strangers having a

conversation and just jump in without even having eavesdropped first. It’s because we don’t

have context!

Often times, the prior of a writer is not sufficient to serve as the writer’s lone knowledge

base. Prior knowledge does serve as a good basis of where to begin research, or to conduct any

research at all based on the strengths and shortcomings in the writer’s prior. Once the limitations

of prior knowledge have been established, if needed, secondary research can begin. Secondary

research is searching through old sources of established facts, experiments, and records, to

acquire new information. If there is still a knowledge gap that needs to be filled after conducting

secondary research, it is pertinent to conduct primary research. Primary research is the search

for new, raw data, and consists of conducting experiments, surveys, and interviews.

With persuasion, comes a purpose for it. I believe it can be divided into three main

categories of intent, malevolent, benevolent, and indifferent. To clarify, malevolent intent would

be someone writing in the offensive, actively trying to build their arguments while at the same

time breaking down their opponents arguments, overall trying to gain benefit themselves

(internal or external). Benevolent intent is writing for the purpose of benefitting others, such as

writing a thoughtful message in a friend’s birthday card. Generally benevolent and malevolent

intents discuss matters of a subjective matter. Indifferent intent is generally used for verifying

facts, among other objective subjects of thought.

Overall, what it comes down to is that writing is whatever the writer wants it to be. As a

writer, I want this portfolio to be done. All jokes aside, writing is bound by few guidelines, and

as cheesy as it sounds, a piece of paper is just like a blank canvas, it’s just waiting for the

imagination of the author/painter to make it something.

Self Review of Draft:

1. The overall purpose of my theory of writing is to provide a general description of how writing

works and what it is.

2. See yellow highlighted portion above.

3. I hope that the audience will see that writing is only as limited as you choose to make it.

4. See green highlighted portion above, those are quotes from my Maps Take 3. I need to add

more from other writing.

5. I need to add quotes from theorists

6. The maps connect to my alphabetic theory of writing in that the metaphors I used for Maps

Take 2 and Take 3 are both examples of how the terms can work together without having any

specific order. By creating both visual and alphabetic representations of my theory I was able to

reach a deeper understanding of my own theory than I would have from just one.

7. My prior impacted my theory of writing in that I began this class with a few inherent biases

about writing.

8. In other classes and situations, my theory of writing will be very useful in creating outlines

and plans for almost any composition. I need to add other contexts that my theory would be

useful in.

9. Because, over time, I will gain a deeper understanding of it as I use it across a multitude of

situations and will be able to change it when new information presents itself.

10. I learned that I, as a writer, still have much more to learn about writing. Writing is a much

broader and deeper subject of discussion than it appears to be at the surface.