Date of Award

5-9-2016

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

First Advisor

Mary Hocks

Second Advisor

Michael Harker

Third Advisor

Ashley Holmes

Abstract

This project examines the impact that cloud-based writing has on scholars’ material work processes and the temporal value shift that occurs as we write in an ‘always-on’ environment. It analyzes how interactive writing software (IWS) like Google Documents serve to forefront functions of interactivity between writers, and by doing so, reshape and create Western values surrounding the academic writing process that are uniquely post-industrial. Using James Porter’s (2009) components of digital delivery as a lens, this project contextualizes the ways that the work of writing is performed online by looking at the features embedded in a Google Document. This examination confirms that the canon of delivery itself has undergone a shift. In arguing for different values assigned to the performance of scholarly writing, that decenter the autonomous writer free of material needs, this project illustrates the affordances and limitations of scholarly writing that is both developed and delivered in and through interactive writing software. This dissertation then offers readers a theory of temporal-materiality that creates a model through which to exact an in-depth exploration into the impact Web 2.0 tools have had on writers and writing.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/8506973

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