Abstract
Abstract This study addresses the need for attention to conflicts surrounding voice in composition studies in conjunction with recent research demonstrating the rhetorically complex array of writing moves in which social network users participate. Together, these areas of inquiry present a need for research into social network users’ rhetorical awareness of writing practices. The article presents a study of one first-year college student’s Facebook activity. I analyze Facebook screenshots and interview data to describe the participant’s construction of voice in writing and of a persona on the social network site. Findings reveal that the participant has gained literacy in Facebook as a secondary Discourse as evidenced by her rhetorical awareness in Facebook activity. The participant demonstrated a sophisticated awareness of rhetorical functions within Facebook by hiding her personal opinion, crafting a persona characterized by non-mainstream interests, and paying attention to readers’ behavior to distribute content they found interesting at times they were most likely to engage with it. I conclude the article by discussing applications for the first-year composition classroom that can be drawn from the study findings and from students’ existing writing practices on social network sites.
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