Essay 1 Rough Draft

New Era Speed Reading

*I’m not really happy with my intro.  I also don’t really know if the overall structure is that good.  I made an initial plan, but it wasn’t lengthy enough so I just sorta kept adding stuff.  Any constructive criticism would be appreciated.

            The readers and writers of today are very different from their counterparts of the past.  With new technologies like personal computers, smart phones, and the internet, information is easier to access than ever.  People can stay in touch instantly by using their phones, email, or the many social networking websites, like Facebook and Twitter.  Today’s readers don’t spend hours in libraries, looking through countless books for research.  Now they search the web and information is just a click away.  This trend has had some painful effects on many print industries.  Many newspapers have switched to online publications, because most people don’t go out and buy newspapers anymore.  The book store borders went out of business, because of the increased popularity of eBooks.  I believe this change is just a natural shift.  With increased technology there is trend that is moving away from printed writing, and moving toward electronic writing.  Electronic writing cuts down on paper waste and is more easily distributed.  We are clearly in the midst of a literary shift and it will be interesting to see what direction we literates are heading in.

            Some would argue this shift in reading and writing habits is detrimental.  The internet itself has had a powerful impact on the way we read nowadays.  The types of readers that the internet is spitting out are impatient.  Nicholas Carr notes that “what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.”  People don’t stop to read long articles on the internet.  They “power browse” through the web, and are always moving forward, while rarely going backwards.  People also now enjoy the ease of eBooks and online news.  Many bookstores, like Borders, have gone out of business, and most newspapers today are published solely online.  Chris Hedges would argue that this digital age is cultivating a “semi-literate” population who only understand “images and slogans.”  He talks about how these people lack “the ability to think for oneself,” and that politicians will take advantage of that to gain control.  These arguments paint a dark picture, but I don’t think it’s all that bad.  The transition to electronic writing cuts back on logging for paper.  Anything that saves trees can’t be that bad.  With newspapers going online, they have become more accessible.  I always thought those old newspapers were too large and cumbersome.  Hedges would tell you that today’s America is a barely literate population, but I don’t believe this is the case.  According to Lunsford’s study the kids of today are reading more than ever before, and I think this trend will continue.

            I think the digital reading and writing shift is a good one.  The internet has made information incredibly accessible.  Students today don’t have to spend hours in libraries to gather their research.  They are a web search away from incredible amount of good and bad information.  It is up to the reader to judge the value of what they are reading.  Today’s readers may not read lengthy articles or even books anymore, but they read more than you’d think.  They “power browse” through web pages, never stopping, but instead, they look for the main idea and judge the value of what they see.  Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are a wonderful new source of reading and writing.  In them people can share their thoughts and experiences with their friends in a live feed.  Many people today will spend hours just reading about what their friends have been doing or thinking.  I wouldn’t necessarily call Facebook or its ilk a formal literary medium, but it can’t be argued that thousands of people read and write on social networking sites on a regular basis.  I have to say that I think the best example of the way reading and writing have changed is the internet’s literary medium.  Yes, I’m talking about the blog.

            Blogging exemplifies how we as readers and writers have changed.  Andrew Sullivan describes blogging as “instant and global self-publishing.”  “Instant and global.”  These two words go are the foundations of blogging and also the direction our literary shift is heading in.  The majority of blog posts are between 100 and 500 words (Link).  This short length appeals to our short attention spans.  Like I said before, today’s readers and writers are impatient.  The readers like blogs, because they are relatively short.  Our attention drifts after a couple pages so a short blog post is ideal.  The writers like blogging, because they can self-publish their work to a global audience for free.  This idea of “global self-publishing” really wasn’t possible until the internet.  This is bringing about a golden age for writers.  Any average Joe can go to a site like Blogger and start his own blog with relatively little difficulty.  This ease is unheard of.  Before the internet, one would have to be a recognized writer, or have access to a large sum of money to get published, but that is no longer the case.  I personally have found blogging to be an incredibly fun way to express myself.  I hadn’t blogged before this class, but I think I’ll continue to do so after this class is over.  It’s just fun being able to express myself, and I hope the next generation of readers feels this way as well.

            All of these changes in reading and writing lead one to wonder… What’s next?  Clearly our populations reading and writing habits are changing.  I believe the new trend of impatience that is evident in today’s readers will lead to increasingly short and to the point writings.  I also agree with Hedges in that the trend seems to be to a more image based society.  The internet bombards its users with visual ads on basically every webpage, but these ads fund the websites and keep them accessible to everyone.  These ads are aimed at the new readers, by being getting their message across in the fastest and flashiest way they can.  It takes something special to hold the attention of the new readers.  In the future, I imagine publications will continue to grow shorter and more image based, and electronic publications will become the norm.

            I think this new shift in literacy is also having a profound effect on writing.  Writing style changes based on the medium, and the internet’s new writers exemplify the current trend.  They write what they think as they think it.  Blogging is the end result of this.  As Sullivan puts it, “We blog now-as news reaches us, as facts emerge.”  I believe blogs will continue to evolve and grow until blogging is one of the main mediums that writers use to publish their work.  I also believe this writing class is an example of how writing has changed.  I think this blog writing class model is fun, accessible, and will be used in high school classes in the near future.  It is an easy way for students to publish their writing, and to view their classmates writing.  I think this model will have a really cool impact on high schools and even middle schools.  With these new writing methods I believe that we will continue to evolve as writers and the results will be more writers than ever before.

            These new literary trends are shoving old habits aside.  People will continue to gravitate towards the ease of the digital age.  It’s a natural progression.  People are continuing to use eBooks as opposed to hard copies, and it’s easy to see why.  People can house an entire library of books on their computer of tablet.  EBooks are cheaper and help save the environment, by cutting back on tree consumption.  Web research has made researching projects for school exceptionally easier.  I’ve never spent an extended period of time doing research in a library, unless I was on the computer.  Using mainly encyclopedias and books for research is almost unheard of nowadays.  Everybody uses the internet.  One has to make the distinction between good and bad web sources, but that is an easy trade off to make in exchange for the vast amount information available on the web.  Whether they like or not, it’s tough to argue that readers and writers aren’t different, because of the internet.

            These advances in technology have made me optimistic about our future.  The internet has made it easier than ever before to publish personal writing.  I hope in 10 or 20 years everyone’s blogging or whatever the equivalent may be.  Imagine young kids posting homework on school blogs.  The new writers will be intertwined by the internet.  Their work will be accessible by a worldwide audience, and this global pool of information will continue to grow.  The “new readers” will swiftly swim through the pool of information.  They’ll be able a click away from everything.  It’ll be a golden age for writers.

Sources

- America the Illiterate By Chris Hedges

- Is Google Making Us Stupid? July/August 2008 Atlantic Monthly  By Nicholas Carr

-Why I Blog November 2008 Atlantic By Andrew Sullivan

-Our Semi-literate Youth? Not So Fast By Andrea A. Lunsford

- modernl.com

Reflections|snoitcelfeR

Blogging has been a new a fun experience for me.  I haven't ever really blogged before this class, but I think I'll try to continue to do so afterward.  It's just fun to sit down vent my thoughts.  I don't really think blogging has been that difficult.  I have a little trouble getting started sometimes, but once I start writing I have those 250 words before I even realize it.  I think that has been the most surprising part of blogging.  It's easy to just go straight from my head to the screen.  I'm also surprised at how fun this is.  I find myself getting all giddy as I express myself on this screen.  Honestly, this open ended topic is my favorite kind of blog post.  I don't feel constrained by a topic based on specific readings, or anything like that.  I can just say how I feel and it makes me feel good.

I have to say my reading and writing habits have changes a little bit since this started.  My writing style feels similar to how it used to before, but I find myself getting more personal with these blog posts.  I don't really like formal writings, so I really gravitated towards the informality of blogging.  I don’t know if my reading style has changed significantly, but I have been looking for things that I wouldn’t be looking for a year ago.  I find myself looking for strengths, weaknesses, and tone much more than I used to in the past.  I also find myself looking for interesting parts of my classmates’ blog posts when I get bored.  I really enjoyed some of the blog posts people made that weren’t part of a prompt.  Those posts felt more personal, and gave me an insight to their interests.  I have to say that blogs are one of my new favorite writing mediums.

Literacy

Scribner and Lunsford offered interesting views on literacy.  I really enjoyed how in depth Scribner went into her analysis of literacy.  Her three metaphors of functionality, power, and salvation gave a very broad idea of what literacy is.  To be really basic about it, literacy is the ability to read and write in symbols.  It’s the ability to take your thoughts and put them down in a way that can be visually interpreted by others.  It is also the ability to read what others have written, and discern what they mean by it.  Anybody can look and a piece of writing and say something like “this is all about cheeseburgers” without the faintest understanding of what it really says.  That skill of understanding what the writer is trying to say is the key. 

I was really happy to see that Scribner showed both the strengths and weaknesses of the three metaphors.  Functionality is important for functioning in a modern society, but people don’t necessarily have to be literate to survive.  Power stresses the “relationship between literary and group or community advancement.”  It stresses that literacy is necessary for social change, but that isn't necessarily true.  Studies have shown that social change promotes literacy(ex: USSR, China, Cuba).  Also, I don’t believe most people write for the benefit of their country or for the collective.  They write to express themselves, and to convey their feelings to others, or just for themselves in the form of a journal.  This goes more into the salvation metaphor in that people write for themselves, but I don’t think any of these metaphors can stand alone.

I was glad that these readings had a more upbeat tone than Carr and Hedges.  Scribner talked about literacy in itself, but Lunsford seemed to be a complete U-turn compared to Carr and especially Hedges.  Lunsford’s studies showed that kids are writing more than ever before, and they also adjust their writing for different audiences and occasions.  Hedges talked a lot about how literacy is growing weaker in this technological age, but I don’t agree.  My generation reads and writes constantly.  Sure it isn't in the traditional medium, but times are changing.  There was a time when only a fraction of the population was literate, and now at least it’s a majority.

Clearly there is still a problem with illiteracy that needs to be addressed.  Too many are under-educated and these people lead lives of crime, because they don’t know what else to do.  I don’t know what the solution is, but I believe getting kids interested in reading at a young age is important.  I don’t believe the shift to internet writing and texting is a bad one.  Kids are reading and writing more in those mediums than ever before.  I think this is admirable, and I hope this trend of increased writing continues.

Illiterate America and Google Images

Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Is about the impact Google and the internet have had on thought, primarily through how they've affected reading.  It seems to me that Carr’s answer to this question is yes.  Carr talks about how he used to enjoy delving into lengthy articles, but after his exposure to the ease of the internet, his “concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages.”  He talks about how we as people are starting to think like the internet.  People don’t read as much in the traditional sense anymore.  Now we “power browse” and we seem to try to “avoid reading in the traditional sense.”  His reservations seem to be rooted in his loss of his ability to deep read.

Ironically I noticed the impact he’s describing while I was reading his work.  I found myself continually getting distracted, and feeling tempted to just start trolling the internet.  I also have trouble deep reading, but I can still curl up with a good book.  I don’t believe everything he said is true, but I can’t argue that the way we think has changed, because of the internet.  I can’t imagine having to do research in a library with a bunch books and a big encyclopedia, but I've been spoiled by this beast we call Google.

Hedges seems to be upset with America, because he doesn't consider a large chunk of the population to be literate.  He talks about how they respond to images and emotional appeals, and make decisions without referring to any real textual information.  He considers literacy not only the ability to read, but also the “ability to think for oneself.”  He points out how presidential speeches and debates are getting progressively easier to understand, so even a 10 year old (or someone who reads like a 10 year old) can understand their emotional appeals.  I found the end of the column to be particularly troubling.  He paints a dark picture of the future of America, where this “illiterate” sect of America will become a majority.  I found his piece to be a little too negative for my taste.  I’m all for “reading” and what not, but to me this guy seems a little over dramatic.

Both Hedges and Carr describe a change in the way America is thinking, that is being brought on by a desire for information to be simpler and faster.  People aren't reading as much as they used to, and it’s having an impact.  Books stores are closing, because of new eBooks and just a general lessening of people who read books in America.  Carr focuses more on the internet then Hedges, and Hedges paints a darker picture, but they both see a troubling trend in America’s reading habits.

Thoughts on Reading & Writing

Reading is the act of intelligently interpreting the writing of someone else or even yourself.

Writing is the act of taking one's ideas and recording them in a way that can be interpreted by others.  (Ex. Journal, blog, novel, video, etc...)

Rewriting a Blog

In Rewriting Joseph Harris goes a long way to explain the essence of academic writing.  It seems that most writing is rewriting, because we take the information we use from countless other sources.  Harris describes how “texts don’t simply reveal their meanings to us; we need to make sense of them.”(Pg. 15)  In “Coming to Terms” Harris talks about different ways to read someone’s writing.  He basically said that proficient readers look for “aims, methods, and materials.”  I really liked what he said about how writers take what they read and incorporate into their own work in their own words.  He talked a lot about analyzing different writings and how one should look for not only what the writer does well, but also what they seem to leave out or avoid.  I really liked how he incorporated other writings to not only serve as examples of academic writing themselves, but also for he himself to analyze them and show exactly what he’s talking about. 

Harris and Sullivan seem to have similar opinions on writing.  They both talk about writing as a “conversation.”  Harris and Sullivan both talked about the almost uncontrollable nature of internet writing.  They both clearly have a passion for writing, and blogging is really a form of rewriting.  One formulates an opinion or idea about an issue, takes in information about the issue, and they then use the information to support their writing, or in this case a blog post.  The hyperlink on the blog shows what is being “rewritten.”

The main difference between these two writers seems to be the formality with which they write.  Clearly “Why I Blog” is project of love on Sullivan’s part, while “Rewriting” is more of a guide to academic writing.  Sullivan seemed to want to express his love for blogging, and Harris seemed to want educate readers about his views of rewriting.

My First Blogging Experience

Ok, technically this isn’t my first blog, but whatever.  I haven’t found creating a blog to be very difficult.  In fact it is pretty fun.  I was a little surprised at how easy it is, not only to write for the blog, but also to add things to the blog like videos and pictures.  It gives me a lot of ideas for future blog posts.  This blogging experience has changed how I view bloggers as well.  It is such an easy medium for someone to put his or her opinions out there, and it has shown me that bloggers are really just regular people who thought, “Hey, I want to say something.”  Before I even realized it I had 100 words down and I was still going.  I can also see how blogging is similar to Facebook.  It’s quick and easy to post my thoughts, basically anybody can read what I wrote, and they can give me there opinion as easily as I posted mine.

Blogging is a little scary though.  Any random troll could come and rip me a new one in the comments, but that’s just part of the fun.  Honestly I’m tempted to use this blog as a means to rant about random stuff that ticks me off, and it’s also tempting to just spit BS.  It’s not like I have to fact check myself, but I’m pretty sure my readers would call me out if I start blatantly lying.  I think my favorite part of this blogging thing is that I can just start writing.  I don’t really feel confined right now.  I can just say what I think, and I think that is awesome.  So I hope you all enjoy my blog, and I hope to be insightful, lighthearted, and funny.

Oh and just for fun I added a cool picture. (figured I’d start messing with the special features on day 1 ;)

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/01/winners-of-the-national-geographic-photo-contest-2012/100434/

Sullivan Response

I found Sullivan’s “Why I Blog” to be very insightful on not only his experience blogging, but also at how blogging was viewed when it first started.  He talks about how he is instantly hooked on the free-form style and I get that.  I enjoy how blogging is just from the writer directly to the reader, without any editors or fact checkers in the middle.  Yes, blogging can be accident prone, but that is part of the fun.  He also talked about how blogging has an unfinished tone, like a never ending story.  The blogger just keeps adding his or her thoughts and people can choose to read it or not. 

I can see why Sullivan gravitated towards blogging after reading his article.  As opposed to when he worked for The New Republic blogging is much quicker and easier.  He complained about the “the endless delays, revisions, office politics, editorial fights, and last-minute cuts for space” that come with regular publishing, and I can see how that could be frustrating.  Blogs are a writer’s dream.  It’s means for someone to instantly publish themselves and it’s a medium that can potentially reach anyone on the planet.  To those who put down blogging as inaccurate and unprofessional, Sullivan brings up “the fierce, immediate scrutiny” of the blogs readers.  He also seems to like how blogs are short as opposed to other mediums.  People don’t go online looking for massive articles to read.  People like there information to be short and sweet, and blogging caters to that.  Sullivan clearly enjoys the freedom and speed of blogging and so do I.  It short, sweet, and an enjoyable means for someone to get his or her opinion out there.