Abstract
This article lays out an approach for introducing students to the writing demands of crowdfunding platforms using a genre-driven research report. Using genre theory and genre ecologies, students leverage primary research to map the genre norms and writing demands within a specific area of a crowdfunding platform, generating a data set to help them either formulate their own campaign or critically engage with the crowdfunding genre.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alhattab
F.
(2017 ).Frank. just another f*#king phone [Indiegogo campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.indiegogo.com/projects/frank-just-another-f-king-phone-android-smartphone#/updates/all
2.
Blackmon
S.
Karabinus
A.
(2015 ).Invisibility blues: Exploring race in video games [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/113093954/invisibility-blues-exploring-race-in-video-games/description
3.
Boyd
R.
(2011 ).Cthulhu saves the world enhanced version for PC & Xbox 360 [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/744735150/cthulhu-saves-the-world-enhanced-version-for-pc-an
4.
Brown
T. E.
Boon
E.
Pitt
L. F.
(2017 ).Seeking funding in order to sell: Crowdfunding as a marketing tool .Business Horizons ,60 ,189 -195 .
5.
Burton
L.
, &Reading Rainbow . (2014 ).Bring Reading Rainbow back for every child, everywhere! [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-child-everywh
6.
Davidson
R.
Poor
N.
(2016 ).Factors for success in repeat crowdfunding: Why sugar daddies are only good for Bar-Mitzvahs .Information, Communication & Society ,19 ,127 -139 .
7.Double Fine, & 2 Player Productions . (2012 ).Double Fine Adventure [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doublefine/double-fine-adventure/description
8.The Forking Path . (2012 ).The doom that came to Atlantic City ! [Kickstarter campaign page]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/forkingpath/the-doom-that-came-to-atlantic-city/
9.
Gerding
J. M.
Vealey
K. P.
(2017 ).When is a solution not a solution? Wicked problems, hybrid solutions, and the rhetoric of civil entrepreneurship .Journal of Business and Technical Communication ,31 ,290 -318 .
10.
Gillespie
T.
(2010 ).The politics of “platforms.”
New Media & Society ,12 ,347 -364 .
11.
Gozney
T.
(2016 ).Roccbox: The portable stone bake pizza oven [Indiegogo campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.indiegogo.com/projects/roccbox-the-portable-stone-bake-pizza-oven-food-cooking#/updates/all
12.
Grepper
R.
(2014 ).COOLEST COOLER: 21st century cooler that’s actually cooler [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/coolest-cooler-21st-century-cooler-thats-actually
13.
Hillier
B.
(2015 ,August
27 ).Divinity Original Sin 2 funded in 12 hours . Retrieved fromhttps://www.vg247.com/2015/08/27/divinity-original-sin-2-funded-in-12-hours/
14.
Houle
C.
(2016 ).Phazon: Wireless earbuds guaranteed not to fall [Indiegogo campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.indiegogo.com/projects/phazon-wireless-earbuds-guaranteed-not-to-fall-sports-headphones#/
15.
Igarashi
K.
(2015 ).Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/description
16.
17.Indiegogo . (n.d.-b).Choose the crowdfunding partner that’s with you at every step . Retrieved fromhttps://entrepreneur.indiegogo.com/how-it-works/indiegogo-vs-kickstarter/
18.Indiegogo . (n.d.-c).Get the crowdfunding field guide . Retrieved fromhttps://entrepreneur.indiegogo.com/how-it-works/
19.inXile Entertainment . (2012 ).Wasteland 2 [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/description
20.KAISR Original . (2016 ).KAISR Original: The ultimate inflatable air lounge [Indiegogo campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kaisr-original-the-ultimate-inflatable-air-lounge#/
21.Kickstarter . (n.d.-a).Creator handbook . Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/help/handbook?ref=footer
22.Kickstarter . (n.d.-b).Kickstarter basics . Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/kickstarter+basics
23.Kickstarter . (2016 ,April
26 ).Meet the superbackers . Retrieved fromhttps://medium.com/kickstarter/meet-the-superbackers-962bf714fc2e
24.
25.
Kostelnick
C.
Hassett
M.
(2003 ).Shaping information: The rhetoric of visual conventions .Carbondale :Southern Illinois University Press .
26.Larian Studios LLC . (2013 ).Divinity: Original Sin [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin
27.
Lundberg
C.
(2009 ).Enjoying God’s death: The passion of the Christ and the practices of an evangelical public .Quarterly Journal of Speech ,95 ,387 -411 .
28.
McGregor
M.
Benenson
F.
(2013 ,October
29 ).Five million backers! [Web log post ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/blog/five-million-backers
29.
Mehlenbacher
A. R.
(2017 ).Crowdfunding science: Exigencies and strategies in an emerging genre of science communication .Technical Communication Quarterly ,26 ,127 -144 .
30.
Miller
C. R.
(1984 ).Genre as social action .Quarterly Journal of Speech ,70 ,151 -167 .
31.
Mitra
T.
Gilbert
E.
(2014 ,February ).The language that gets people to give: Phrases that predict success on Kickstarter . InProceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp.49 -61 ).New York, NY :Association for Computing Machinery . Retrieved fromhttps://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2531602.2531656. doi:10.1145/2531602.2531656
32.
Mollick
E.
(2014 ).The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study .Journal of Business Venturing ,29 ,1 -16 .
33.
34.Pebble Technology . (2012 ).Pebble: E-paper watch for iPhone and Android [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/getpebble/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android/updates
35.Pebble Technology . (2015 ).Pebble time: Awesome smartwatch, no compromises [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/getpebble/pebble-time-awesome-smartwatch-no-compromises
36.Pebble Technology . (2016 ).Pebble 2, time 2 + all-new Pebble core [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-2-time-2-and-core-an-entirely-new-3g-ultra/posts/1752929
37.
Pope
A. R.
(2017 ).Bloodstained, unpacking the affect of a Kickstarter success .Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society ,6 (2 ). Retrieved fromhttp://www.presenttensejournal.org/volume-6/bloodstained-unpacking-the-affect-of-a-kickstarter-success/
38.PopSLATE Support . (2016 ).popSLATE 2: Smart second screen for iPhone [Indiegogo campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.indiegogo.com/projects/popslate-2-smart-second-screen-for-iphone#/
39.Reaper Minatures . (2015 ).Reaper Miniatures Bones 3: The search for Mr. Bones ! [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-3-the-search-for-mr-bones
40.
Ringelmann
D.
(2011 ,April
20 ).President Obama’s Startup America selects IndieGoGo as crowdfunding partner alongside AMEX, Facebook, Google, HP, LinkedIn and Cisco [Web log post ]. Retrieved fromhttps://go.indiegogo.com/blog/2011/04/president-obamas-startup-america-selects-indiegogo-as-crowdfunding-partner-along-side-amex-facebook.html
41.
Robertson
A.
(2017 ,August
3 ).Inside Patreon, the economic engine of Internet culture . Retrieved fromhttps://www.theverge.com/2017/8/3/16084248/patreon-profile-jack-conte-crowdfunding-art-politics-culture
42.
Rubin
S.
(2017 ,May
24 ).Equity crowdfunding: 6 months in [Blog post ]. Retrieved fromhttps://go.indiegogo.com/blog/2017/05/equity-crowdfunding-6-months.html
43.Smithsonian Institution . (2015 ).Reboot the suit: Bring back Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smithsonian/reboot-the-suit-bring-back-neil-armstrongs-spacesu
44.
Spinuzzi
C.
(2004 ).Four ways to investigate assemblages of texts: Genre sets, systems, repertoires, and ecologies . InSIGDOC ’04: Proceedings of the 22nd annual international conference on Design of Communication: The Engineering of Quality Documentation (pp.110 -116 ). Retrieved fromhttps://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1026560. doi:10.1145/1026533.1026560
45.
Spinuzzi
C.
(2010 ).Secret sauce and snake oil: Writing monthly reports in a highly contingent environment .Written Communication ,27 ,363 -409 .
46.
Spinuzzi
C.
Zachry
M.
(2000 ).Genre ecologies: An open-system approach to understanding and constructing documentation .ACM Journal of Computer Documentation ,24 ,169 -181 .
47.Star Command . (2011 ).Star Command: Sci-Fi meets GameDev story for iOS and Android [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starcommand/star-command-sci-fi-meets-gamedev-story-for-ios-an
48.Star Command . (2012 ).Star Command Galaxies [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starcommand/star-command-kickstart-part-2-the-pc-mac-space-adv
49.
Strickler
Y.
Chen
P.
Adler
C.
(2012 ,September
20 ).Kickstarter is not a store [Web log post ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/blog/kickstarter-is-not-a-store
50.Subterranean Games . (2013 ).War for the Overworld [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/subterraneangames/war-for-the-overworld/description
51.
Thomas
R.
(2013 ).The Veronica Mars movie project [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project
52.
Tirdatov
I.
(2014 ).Web-based crowd funding: Rhetoric of success .Technical Communication ,61 ,3 -24 .
53.
Tomczak
A.
Brem
A.
(2013 ).A conceptualized investment model of crowdfunding .Venture Capital: An International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance ,15 ,335 -359 .
54.Torquing Group Ltd . (2014 ).ZANO: Autonomous. Intelligent. Swarming. Nano drone [Kickstarter campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/torquing/zano-autonomous-intelligent-swarming-nano-drone/
55.
Toth
C.
(2013 ).Revisiting a genre: Teaching infographics in business and professional communication courses .Business Communication Quarterly ,76 ,446 -457 .
56.
Tsu
S.
(2016 ).ONAGOfly: The smart nano drone [Indiegogo campaign page ]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.indiegogo.com/projects/onagofly-the-smart-nano-drone-drones#/
57.
Vealey
K. P.
(2016 ).Building problem forums: On troubleshooting in the professional writing classroom .Business and Professional Communication Quarterly ,79 ,200 -206 .
58.
Vealey
K. P.
Gerding
J. M.
(2016 ).Rhetorical work in crowd-based entrepreneurship: Lessons learned from teaching crowdfunding as an emerging site of professional and technical communication .IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication ,59 ,407 -427 .
59.
Warner
M.
(2005 ).Publics and counterpublics .Brooklyn, NY :Zone Books .