Abstract

Many academics speak of a “literacy crisis” when referring to student writing standards, often pointing the finger of blame at an overall increase in social networking. The resulting tendency has been for language teachers in higher education to take a corrective, or even remedial, approach to writing fluency. This paper examines blogging as an approach which complements and adds value to the traditional method of submitting an assignment to a lecturer for grading. Examples from English and Spanish language courses on an International Business and Management programme at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands will be used to illustrate how writing for social media can create a cycle of motivation which enables students to take control of their own writing process and standards, hence becoming their own goal-setters, correctors and remediators.