Public Writing for Social Change

     I think often people's first thought when 'public writing' is brought up, is its role in social change. When we discussed it in class, many people brought up activism or politics as their first points. Despite this, I thought this article had plenty of unique things to say about the relationship between public writing and social change that I had previously not thought much about. 

    The first point that jumped out at me was in the very first paragraph. I found the article's term, "academic citizen" to be very interesting. The article defines and academic citizen to be "someone who takes the writing and research we do in college and puts it to practical and civic use in our communities in  the  hopes  of  contributing  toward  positive  social  change." This stuck out to me because I often hear college students complain that the things they're learning will never actually be used in the real world. Often, material can feel like something one only needs to memorize to ace the test, rather than take and apply to their lives. I personally find the idea of learning just for a test to be exhausting and dull. Because of this, I have been unknowingly applying the principles of being an "academic citizen" to my life without even realizing it.

    The second thing that stuck out to me was the power of Twitter and social media. The article specifically mentioned Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, but I think there are countless examples of similar trends. Social media has given us direct and accessible access to our government representatives. They've always been accessible to an extent, at least in the US, but now all it takes is a device and access to the internet. For better or for worse, we can talk to just about everyone. 

    I thought this article gave an extensive insight to public writing for social change, and these were just two things that jumped out at me.