Book Review: Digital Writing: A Guide to Writing for Social Media and the Web by Lawrence D.

Abstract

Digital Writing: A Guide to Writing for the Social Media and the Web by Dan Lawrence is prefaced with an explanation that this text is designed to help readers engage with digital media in a more rhetorical manner than we’ve allowed for. Lawrence laments the lack of the proper study of platonic rhetoric in the 21st century because he believes Plato saw more than the persuasive value of rhetoric and instead saw rhetoric as a means of aligning speech with truth, aligning speech with personal and social values, attitudes, and beliefs. Lawrence’s text is an effort to bring classical rhetoric into and alongside of what we are calling digital media with the goal to help readers effectively, persuasively, and more meaningfully use the technologies we have. The text is divided into five main chapters with multiple subsections in each one. Additionally, unlike other texts that often deal with this same topic, this text provides guided discussion questions and student prompts at the end of each chapter. On the publisher’s website, one can also find companion materials such as supplemental readings and supplemental videos. Instructor resources are also included in this text and include discussion board prompts, a sample syllabus, digital training and certificate information, and sample quizzes. Combined with the text, these resources make it easy to customize the course to student needs. Additionally, these chapters do not have to be read in a linear fashion as is the case with most textbooks. This text is definitely designed to allow multiple audiences multiple entrances into the reading material. The first chapter, Introduction to Digital Writing, discusses the meaning of digital media and provides a rhetorical framework for the chapters that follow. Lawrence explains the connections between rhetoric and technology and discusses the application of rhetoric to digital media. He goes into some depth about the relationship of ethos, Book Reviews