Incorporating Social Media Into Academic Writing Process

Abstract

In higher education, academic writing is essential because it is extensively used in academic and professional communication. However, writing has been claimed to be difficult for students (Gibbons, 2002). Therefore, lecturers are challenged to find new ways and innovation to facilitate students' academic writing. Among those new ways is incorporating social media in academic writing class. It is triggered by the fact that nowadays the students are always connected with others using social media and they learn not only from their lecturers and peers but from their connection. This paper aims to investigate the use of social media in students' writing processes. Qualitative research design was employed in this research. Data was obtained from three sources, namely interviews, students' reflective journal and students' texts. The findings revealed that the students made use of social networking tools in the process of writing. During the interaction, the students also obtained feedback on their academic writing.