Digital Communication Norms and Academic Writing Practices among Students of Benue State Polytechnic: A Qualitative Discourse-Analytic Study

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of digital communication norms on academic writing practices among tertiary students in Nigerian polytechnics, particularly Benue State Polytechnic, Ugbokolo, using a qualitative discourse-analytic approach. Against the backdrop of increasing engagement with digital platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and X, the study examines how features associated with digitally mediated communication intersect with formal academic writing conventions. Grounded in sociocultural theory, dialogism, and academic literacies, the research conceptualizes students’ writing as a site of interaction between multiple literacy practices and discursive influences. Data were collected from twenty-four National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) students at Benue State Polytechnic through forty-eight academic essays, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observation notes. The data were analyzed using thematic discourse analysis and interpretive discourse-analytic procedures. Findings reveal that digital communication norms are systematically embedded in students’ academic writing at lexical, structural, and discourse levels. Recurrent features include lexical abbreviations, orthographic reduction, conversational tone, emotive punctuation, code-mixing, fragmented paragraphing, and weak textual cohesion. These features reflect processes of mediated literacy transfer, interdiscursive hybridity, and writer identity negotiation rather than mere linguistic incompetence. The study further demonstrates that students often draw unconsciously on digitally acquired communicative resources, resulting in tensions between informal digital practices and formal academic expectations. While higher-level students showed greater control over academic conventions, traces of digital influence persisted across all levels. The study concludes that digital communication is reshaping academic literacy practices in significant ways and argues for instructional approaches that move beyond deficit-oriented correction toward the development of metalinguistic awareness and context-sensitive writing competence. The research contributes to scholarship on digital literacy and academic writing by providing contextually grounded findings from the Nigerian polytechnic environment.