User:Heather203/Civic writing

Civic Writing
Civic writing may be defined as the texts or documents citizens create in order to enact social change. This writing might be a speech to the local governing body in order to support a specific action or a letter to the editor of a paper to protest certain actions in a community. With the possibility of citizens publishing their work on the internet, civic writing can take the shape of digital media activism. Twitter made national headlines in June 2009 as citizens in Iran used the social networking site to protest the presidential elections Iran protests: Twitter, the medium of the movement.

Most civic writing happens because individuals or groups share the same concerns within a community. A community might be a neighborhood, a gathering at a kitchen table, a blog and its readers, or a social club that meets to discuss issues for a greater good than their own concern. These communities take a variety of forms within local, state, and national platforms. In addition, the groups or individual gather over interests of geographical, cultural, or ideological issues.

The writing that comes out of these groups are of a great variety. Some examples may be: project proposal; researched feature articles; opinion-editorial pieces; petitions; publicity documents (flyers, brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, posters to targeted audiences); websites; press releases; speeches; oral presentations for a particular setting/event/venue, or other digital or print forms of public, civic writing .

The conference on College Composition and Communication lists civic discourse as one of the multiple uses of writing that may be taught in college.