Online writing is the new normal for students who are often blogging, commenting, and tweeting outside of class. But how does writing really work in the lives of students?

That was the question the Writing in Digital Environments (WIDE) Research Center at Michigan State University sought to answer in a new study, Revisualizing Composition: Mapping the Writing Lives of First-Year College Students.

Working from the assumption that students lead complex writing lives, this study is interested in a broad range of writing practices and values both for the classroom and beyond it, as well as the technologies, collaborators, spaces, and audiences they draw upon in writing.

The study asked students in first-year writing classes from seven institutions to identify the types of writing they do, with “writing” encompassing everything from writing academic papers to sending text messages.

I know what you’re thinking…texting is writing?

Yes, texting is writing, along with making lists and taking lecture notes. That’s not all—texting is the type of writing that students report doing and valuing the most, making cell phones the top writing platform.

Other key findings:

• Students write for personal fulfillment nearly as often as for school assignments.
• Students prefer to write alone instead of collaboratively.
• Blogs, Twitter, and Wikis are not used by many of the students surveyed, but those who use these technologies do so frequently.

You can read more about the study’s initial findings and the researchers behind it on the WIDE site or download the complete white paper here (PDF).

UPDATE: Check out WILX Radio’s interview with Jeff Grabill, co-director of the WIDE Center, about the Revisualizing Composition study.