In ENGL 106, Introductory Composition, students created a social networking page for a made-up identity.  Their goal was to create a single identity, but express that identity differently on two social networking sites, in order to understand how those representations of identity are shaped by medium.  First, students  created a personality and decided on  a range of personality traits and personal information from a very broad template.  After deciding on your these fabricated personality traits, students created two different social networking pages on two different social networking sites, one from a list of popular sites and one from a list of smaller networking sites.

Along with screenshots from the social networking sites, students created a short rationale that explains some of the decisions they made, or were allowed to make, in creating their site.  These rationales addressed:

1. a description of students’ made up identities, including as much detail as necessary

2. the choices students made in creating the text, designing the layout, including links, embedding music or videos, choosing colors and fonts, joining groups, selecting games or organizations, etc.

3. how those choices helped or hindered the representation of students’ made-up identities

4.  how the two sites differed in their representation of the same identity

5. which site represented students’ made-up identities best and why