Exploitationware

Abstract

In April 2011, I spoke at the annual Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC or 4Cs). This was the first year I was invited to speak at the conference, and I was eager to present my theory of the rhetorical aspects of procedurality (Bogost, 2007) to this large and influential group of composition-rhetoric teachers and scholars. But during the Q&A session following my panel, I was surprised to hear one of the attendees ask explicitly about the possibility of using “gamification” to improve students’ performance with and engagement in the writing classroom.