Writing Revolution or Not?

            At this day and age, young people’s lives are crowded with social networking of all sorts and many look down upon that. Of course there are the Facebook fights and Controversial pictures and topics seen on Tumblr, but who should say that any of this is actually a waste of time? Clive Thompson makes a claim that a new literacy is emerging and I could not agree more.

            In my mind, literacy can be defined as effectively communicating one’s thoughts in writing while also being able to read others’ written thoughts and understand them. Writing does not have to be a whole book’s worth of thoughts or contain extensive vocabulary- writing is simply using written words to get a point across. Writing does not have to be about a great, famous person that lived long ago or an analysis on the production of certain proteins- writing can simply be about feelings and what interests you.

            If you asked many teens and young adults what they do in their free time, most would say that they get on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Tumblr (for a few examples.) On these sites you can see anything from little snips of conversation and thoughts in the form of tweets or page long life details in the form of blogs. This is how we learn to communicate with the world. We may not have advanced sentence structure or obsess over our syntax and word count, but we are using our writing to put our thoughts and feelings out into the world for others to see and reflect upon.

 A perfect example of why I appreciate this new age of communication involves Facebook. One morning I woke up and performed my usual ritual of checking my Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. As I scrolled down the Facebook page, I noticed that one of my friends’ statuses was very shocking and intriguing. She made a remark to the effect that all women are good for are cooking cleaning, and raising children. There were a large number of comments- so I knew I had to investigate for myself. At first, many comments were joking back with her, a few males agreeing here and there. But then I saw that another good friend of mine has commented and was not pleased in the least. She left a lengthy, upset yet respectful comment in reply. Another woman then entered the conversation, resulting in the two going back and forth, and one attempting to argue while the other just wanted her opinion to be heard and make no fuss. In the end, the two of them realized that while they may not agree with what the other is saying, they can accept their opinions and appreciate the fact that in any other circumstance, they would have never made conversation.

So you see, as much as one may find spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, these forms of networking allow for effective communication among many levels. The fact that students may not make good use of spell check and revisit grammar rules can be corrected but not being able to tell others how you feel and analyze others’ opinions can never be fixed if a person is not given the chance to use those abilities first hand- the way they chose to. Of course I can see that we need to work on handling lengthier texts and critical reading, but that can come in time. Skills such as those may not always be used in life outside of an educational setting, but communication is something we will always be faced with. If we cannot carry away the correct meaning of ethos, we should at least be able to simply write- take our feelings, opinions, daily experiences and turn them into something that others can enjoy and might even do the same in their own way.

A Little Bit On Rhetoric

Personally when considering this image, there is so much there. As I consider the rhetorical situation, this image is used in the context of shocking while bringing awareness to its audience of verbal abuse. The audience can be considered school age children as well as parents- the hand around the boy’s neck could either be seen as a bully or his own parent. The phrase “Your words have power use them wisely,” explains the purpose of why this image was created, to make people aware that words can be made into a weapon, and the pain can be much like that of physical abuse. This image works effectively at projecting a message because no human with a heart would like to see a little boy, tears in his eyes, being tortured by someone he fears or even possibly loves.

            Of the three: ethos, pathos, and logos, I find that there is significant use of pathos. This image captures fear and sadness thus causing the audience to have sympathy towards the boy or even anger towards his attacker. His expression and the simple tear coming out of his eye shows the pure innocence that he still possesses and the fact that he in no way has provoked the treatment that he is receiving. If one were to look even closer, words such as worthless, punk, and fool can be seen on the transparent hand whose grip is on the boy.  These words are harsh, and in my opinion, if they were uttered to me I would be upset as well. There is not much use of ethos, unless you were to consider how there is an appeal or connection made to the audience by the use of childhood innocence, considering they have all been children in their past. I do not see any use of logos, because there is no cited research or specific organization.

Found using Google: http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=620&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=nzJJaGbKX7TuJM:&imgrefurl=http://shentherapy.webs.com/traumaandrecovery.htm&docid=mCtHNcSOjrGUIM&imgurl=http://shentherapy.webs.com/Words%252520have%252520Power.jpg&w=480&h=348&ei=fZwYT7-FJ8a70AG41sGbCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=530&vpy=259&dur=84&hovh=191&hovw=264&tx=198&ty=137&sig=108757906225687038255&page=7&tbnh=126&tbnw=167&start=158&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:23,s:158

The Writing Process

I can completely agree with Anne Lamott when she says, “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” Before I even begin to write a paper, a story, a written response, whatever it may be, I try to tell myself that could be bad and in most cases never that pretty, but you have to get it over with. However, in the end, I see my work as horrid and seek the nearest Writing Center for advice.

My writing process is pretty basic: become acquainted with the assignment, make notes, write all you can, and review/revise until you are happy with your work. Usually discussion in class can help me become quite comfortable with whatever it is that I have to do. If not, I read over the assignment sheet to give my brain time to focus in on the task at hand and think of all the things that relate to it. I never want to waste my time when I finally sit down to get the work done, so before my fingers ever hit the keys, I make sure I’m as ready as possible to talk about whatever I choose.

Once I know what I am doing, I make notes on all the stuff that I know I can write down, whether it is random facts or simply the organization and flow of what I anticipate the paper to have. This usually takes the least of my time during the writing process because I use so much time simply getting my basic thoughts together before I put them down.

Finally I begin writing the paper. I tend to be one of those Put-It-All-Out-There-At-Once kind of writers, so I allot myself a certain amount of time, briefly review my notes, and go from beginning to end attempting to cover as much as I can before I panic about what is actually in front of me. In the end, I end up having a million grammatical errors, some issues with sentence structure, but usually a pretty solid foundation for what the final paper becomes.

The main issue I have with my writing is my confidence. Every other instructor that I have had in the past either loves or hates my work. My style is very different and almost weird for a student, but after learning about such intriguing writers such as Poe, I want my writing to be totally and completely me. I feel that as long as I have the content correct I should be fine, but something always tells me that I need to please the audience not the assignment. Hopefully, I will learn to get over this as I enter my first college writing course. I plan on continuing seeking the help of other peers, professors, and the Writing Center once I finish my own shitty first draft, but not lack as much confidence in what I place in front of them.