The Repository @ St. Cloud State

Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

8-2025

Culminating Project Type

Thesis

Styleguide

mla

Degree Name

English: M.A.

Department

English

College

College of Liberal Arts

First Advisor

Michael Dando

Second Advisor

Judy Dorn

Third Advisor

Matt Barton

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Keywords and Subject Headings

Twitter Teaching

Abstract

Finding ways to keep students engaged is a common struggle for most teachers. One way to reach today’s students is through a platform they currently use and understand: X, formerly known as Twitter. For the purpose of clarity in this thesis, X will be used as its former name, Twitter. By incorporating Twitter (specifically tweeting) as a writing tool in the classroom, students are engaged with writing while staying current with technology, cell phones, and computers that they already rigorously use. This also enhances teaching for the future because research shows internet technology will only become more present. Adapting teaching activities to today’s internet technology, specifically writing platforms like Twitter, helps current students and future students stay engaged by using a social media platform that’s a part of their everyday lives. In this paper the research will show how Twitter can be used to help student engagement. However, teaching for engagement, and specifically teaching with technology for engagement, happens with today’s current, rhetorical issues. Therefore, teaching with technology must also include teaching rhetoric along with technology. In addition, because technology is rapidly changing, teaching with technology must also be adaptable to changes within and beyond these platforms. While this paper focuses specifically on Twitter, the research could be adapted to evolving versions of Twitter and new, emerging platforms. To begin, the research in this paper will first explain what rhetoric is, and it will specifically look at digital rhetoric. The information presented will show how digital rhetoric is used in everyday communication. Once the digital rhetoric background is established, the research will explain how it can be used on Twitter and in tweets. The digital rhetoric found on Twitter is presented in the research through a few key examples. The research will establish how Twitter is present in students’ everyday lives. Because Twitter is so present in students' lives, it makes it a well-known tool to then be used in the classroom and learning environment. Lastly, this paper will note what future research might need to be done on this topic as it continues to be studied.

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