Keywords Over Originality?

By March 15, 2018BlogPost

As stated in “When Writing Becomes Content,”we must imagine machine audiences, programmed to algorithmically manipulate any composed text—to mine, rank, process, match, reconfigure, and redistribute it—at many places in its rhetorical travels” when we write online (Dush 176). This made me think about the techniques digital writers use to make their work more easy to find. The use of frequently searched keywords, popular tags, and visually enhanced pieces make online content easier to access and get through. This made me question whether it creates a tug-and-pull within a digital writer’s mind to choose generic and common words over words they actually want to use in order to ensure that their piece is more likely to be found. If so does this affect their originality and their original argument?