Academics across a range of disciplines are adopting Twitter – as of 2011, roughly one in forty scholars – and its continued growth is fairly certain. It is being used in the classroom by scholars who wish to manage their professional identities … It is also a place to make connections and conduct research, and a way to create a network of scholarly influence.
–Going Public, Arlene Stein and Jessie Daniels, pg. 91
From blogging to Twitter, academics are increasingly dialoguing with wider publics that include elected officials, journalists, and ordinary citizens. Digital media technologies can be part of the larger model of digital scholarship, rather than simply a tool for disseminating the “outside” world research that’s created “inside” the academy.
–Going Public pg. 96
In this assignment, students create a tweetstorm, also known as a thread, on a given scholarly topic. Tweetstorms are created by posting a tweet, then repeatedly replying to one’s own tweet, creating a long, nested sequence. Students will need to create a Twitter account if they do not have one. However, they need not actually post their thread on Twitter if privacy is a concern.
Effective Tweet Construction:
A single tweet is 280 characters long. A good tweet is concise but conversational. Even within a thread, individual tweets should be able to stand alone, so they can be individually retweeted. Audiences engage more with shorter Tweets (140 words or less) than longer ones. Tweets with 1-2 hashtags receive more engagement than tweets with 0 or with 3+ hashtags.
Examples
In the following article, Dan Chiasson describes how Homer translator and scholar Emily Wilson uses Twitter to connect to a contemporary scholarly and general public.
Here is a highly effective Emily Wilson tweetstorm or thread on violence against women, The Odyssey, and challenges in translation:
Some key features to Wilson’s thread:
- Ties in to a contemporary issue (International Women’s Day).
- Provides quotes of texts and experts. Then, in a following tweet, gives concise scholarly analysis.
- Develops an argument and ends strong, concluding with a discussion of ethics.
Wilson’s website provides additional threads:
Good example tweet threads about science:
- Matto Mildenberger – Tragedy of the Commons
- Katherine Hayhoe –
- Jesse Jenkins – Carbon Pricing
Also: Shelly Lundberg – Sexism in the Academy
Learning Goals
- Use of Twitter as a scholarly public discourse platform.
- Concision and impactful word choice.
- Interplay of evidence and analysis.
Suggestions for Multimedia Expansion
A tweetstorm can be readily linked to a long-form blog post (see WORDPRESS BLOGS AND WEBSITES) and serve as a teaser for or public discussion of that post. It can also be expanded into a standard college essay, or vice versa.
