Nguyen 1

Huy Nguyen

Prof. Mooney

ENC 1102

Feb 9, 2020

Coding: A Different Type of Writing?

Johns described the term “discourse community” as a focus “on text and language, the

genres and lexis that enable members throughout the world to maintain their goals, regulate their

membership, and communicate efficiently with one another” (321). The discourse community

that I am defined with at the moment is the cComputer sScience discourse community, and after

I knew about the definition of discourse and rhetoric from ENC 1102, I questioned myself if

writing is similar to that of coding, both in rhetorical context and behavioral context.

Computer pProgramming has been increasingly popular as another kind of writing, and

another skill to have in the advancing technology era. The world has been demanding more

people with coding skills than ever. That is where I draw up my questions regarding coding and

writing, because of their similarities: They both have languages to write in, they have certain

structures to work, and most of all: they are rhetoric. Downs stated that rhetoric is used for artful

interaction and meaning-making (460). Every computer programming languages have their own

structure and requirements to work, but they all share the goal that is to make a system work as

intended. So is writing, as writing is aimed at creating a cohesive way to communicate ideas for

a purpose.

My initial assessment is to find the relationship between coding and writing, but seeing

that I have already worked out some implications through the journal written by Hoat, I decided
 Nguyen 2

to look into something more specific. Hoat stated that both expository writing and computer

programming have smaller parts in a piece towards a purpose, and that the skillset to achieve this

is pretty similar in both writing and coding. Lennon, Spinuzzi and Vee have talked about

understanding of programming as an expertise rather than programming in individuals. For

example, Spinuzzi talked about code and writing in their ability to create and interpret

meaningful communications. In other words, he talked about how systematic each

communication method is. Lennon used JavaScript’s properties to show that it is the expert in

scripting nowadays, and Vee talked about how coding have become the common expertise for

people in their jobs and lives. They also have not compare that to writing, from what I have seen.

These research questions was built based on the journals I found: How different does a person

write or code? Do the skills transfer to each other? Do they vary between people?

I have planned earlier in the week that I will use archival research and case studies for

how I will approach this topic. A Ccasease studyies will help me know why people write the way

they do, or code the way they do, by observation. I think that two would be sufficient, however

more is also good because I can obtain more diverse and accurate results.

I decided to take on more library archives research, because for me, it is not easy to

interact with people on this topic, because they might find it too deep or complex. For example,

surveys may not convey entirely how people write or code, and the difference between those

behaviors in a single person. Because of the same reason, interviews might be hard to build up.

These are the data that will be collected for this research: code analysis, writing analysis,

working conditions and behaviors of the participants. Through some assignments I will give

these participants, they will demonstrate their writing skills and coding skills. The results will be

analyzed along with where they work and how they do it (I will get this information through
 Nguyen 3

interviewing)., trends in writing in time with programming, and environment during writing and

coding. The trends will be collected during archival research, to prove my point that coding have

been increasingly popular in coincidence with the amount of writings written from these past

years. That data will help cement the relationship between coding and writing skills.

The Research Article is due at April 5th 2020, and I have estimated the timeline for my

research. After February 18’s conference, I will start finding someone who will participate in my

case study. My exercises will come out on February 28th23. The participants will do short

coding and writing exercises, at anywhere of their choice. They will have to report back the

condition of where they do those exercises. After that, participants will be interviewed about

what they do during coding and writing, as well as how they feel about it. I will conduct that

study until March 155. During the case study, I will also start finding the trends in writing and

coding from the recent years. I would say on March 2015 I should be done with it. My analysis

on the result of the study and data I found will be done on March 23, so that I can write up my

Researched on Article for it to due on April 5th.

 Nguyen 4

Interview Questions
1. How did you come up with this solution to the code?
2. Do you draft while writing? How do you do it?
3. What thinking process do you use while doing these exercises (related to coding and
writing)?
4. How was the environment like when you do these exercises? Do they affect your ability
to complete it?
 Nguyen 5

Works Cited

Downs, Doug. “Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and Meaning-Making” Writing

about Writing: A College Reader. 3rd ed., edited by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs,

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017, pp. 457-483.

Hoat, Nancy. “Conquering the Myth: Expository Writing and Computer Programming.” College

Composition and Communication, vol. 38, no. 1, Feb. 1987, pp. 93–95. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.2307/357591.

Johns, Ann M. “Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership, Conflict,

and Diversity.” Writing about Writing: A College Reader. 3rd ed., edited by Elizabeth

Wardle and Doug Downs, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017, pp. 319-332.

Lennon, Brian. “JavaScript Affogato: Programming a Culture of Improvised

Expertise.” Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology, vol. 26,

no. 1, 2018, pp. 47–72. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/con.2018.0002.

Spinuzzi, Clay. “Towards a Hermeneutic Understanding of Programming Languages.” Currents

in Electronic Literacy, vol. 6, 2002. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2005870751&authtype=shib&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Vee, Annette. “Understanding Computer Programming as a Literacy.” Literacy in Composition

Studies, licsjournal.org/OJS/index.php/LiCS/article/view/24.