Unit 1

Here is my essay, it is very rough. http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AdsTTcS951fiZGNoM2NxdnBfMDZicWNobmRi&hl=en sorry about the last link, it would'nt go through to the paper.

The Evolution of Literacy

So far, in writing these posts I feel that my writing has improved. I actually enjoy writing now, which is very strange because before I even dreaded the thought of it. Blogging has shown that there is a certain aspect of freedom to writing. I can write my own opinion about something, not just a big research project. The posts are short and frequent, and the articles peak my interest enough that I do have an opinion on what is being said. They are modern and concern our generation, not some ancient historical culture. Reading these articles has opened my eyes to a phenomenon that is occurring in our world today, reading is undergoing a drastic change. Deep reading is becoming less common, and we are becoming more efficient readers. While this thought first shocked me, I can now easily see how this is the truth. I think the most difficult aspect of this experience so far has been putting my thoughts into words. While this part has been developing throughout this class, I feel I need to take a more academic approach. I do not use an extensive vocabulary, and I am trying to improve on that, the use of a thesaurus has helped tremendously. As well as the use of an extended vocabulary, I now find myself taking a different approach to reading. I jot notes down of points that I find to be important to the article. This process helps me to better comprehend the text in the end so that I can grasp the author’s point. I feel that these blog posts have changed the way I read and write for the better, I now grasp material quicker and my writing has made a drastic improvement. I am excited to continue forward and become the best writer I can be.

Article

This article caught my attention because it told a story about how a seventh grade student could not use an encyclopedia because they were so used to the internet. I felt that this greatly relates to our topic of literacy in the digital age. http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B9sTTcS951fiYWM5YWE3ZmUtYThhMy00MGE4LTk3ZTAtOTc4OTAwZjJiY2U1&hl=en

The New Renaissance of Writing

To Chris Hedges, the once great art of writing is becoming a thing of the past. We can no longer put together great essays, and our new journalistic style is an insult to the illustrious newspaper prose of historical times. We have become a nation that exists solely for entertainment purposes, and due to this, our democracy is bound to fail. While Hedges feels that the destruction of our great nation is imminent, Stanford Professor Andrea Lunsford feels that we are on the edge of literary breakthrough. The young people of America are writing more than ever before, and even a lot of that writing takes place outside of class. Whether it is texting, updating a status on Facebook, or blogging about your ideals, writing has become the cool thing to do. Hedges is correct in the fact that strictly journalistic writing has become a thing of the past, however writing is evolving rapidly. We write to entertain ourselves, and for an audience, mostly our peers, not just for professors as in previous years. It has become a social practice; we can check up on our friends and tell everyone our moods. The internet has indeed changed the way people write, but it has been for the better. It has caused young people to write more, and has not changed the language used in our academic papers. While Hedges thinks that our country is on the verge of collapse due to the appearance of the internet, we are actually on the edge of a new golden age of writing.

A Scary Proposition

In Hedges’ article he defines literacy as the ability to cope with complexity and to separate illusion from truth. He states that many Americans today are unable to accomplish this feat, and rely on pictures and fancy announcers to tell them what to eat or buy. Even the workers at these restaurants rely on pictures to tell them what the customers have ordered. We are living in a country where reading is no longer considered the, “cool,” thing to do, and due to this many people have stopped reading entirely. Most grade school children I have talked to actually despise reading, which is frightening considering that they will soon be a part of the workforce. I also found it surprising, and almost scary for that matter, that the speaking levels of the recent presidents have dropped so dramatically from the great men of the past. Our voters do not grasp the concept of civic literacy as they just vote for their favorite person , and then disappear for a few years. I feel that the levels of speaking should have risen dramatically from over one hundred years ago, due to the fact that we have advanced so far technologically. It’s as if all these hi-tech advances have only made us dumber. This decrease in intelligence points back to Carr’s theory that technology is, indeed, making us stupider. We use it to take the easy way out of problems, not our great American reasoning that we were once so proud of. Technology has such great potential to bring about a great new life for everyone, but only if we use it along with reasoning, and critical thinking, not just for an easy way out.

Changing Brain Waves, One Click at a Time

Nearly every student has had to use Google at some point in their academic career. Whether it was researching for a huge academic paper, or to look up the answer to some homework problems, there is not one single college student who can deny having ever used a search engine. I for one use Google almost daily for everything from entertainment, to exploration of new school topics. In Carr’s article, he makes a statement that the use of search engines is, in fact, decreasing our intelligence. He thinks this because we no longer have to delve deeply into books to get the information that is desired; now all that is needed is a few keystrokes. With this absence of deep reading, some conclude that an absence of deep thinking will coincide. We will risk becoming, “pancake people,” spread so thin that we can no longer think deeply about certain subjects. I disagree with Carr’s statement; I think that Google allows us to process information more efficiently. With the invention of the search engine, we have access to information that we may have never come across without it. Google allows the ability to process information more efficiently, which contributes to one’s critical thinking abilities. In today’s world a person needs to process information very quickly and resourcefully, and the internet aids in that aspect. Just as the inventions of writing, paper, and the printing press have shaped the way humans think in the past, the advent of the internet has completely changed the way we think and perform tasks. Our brains have adapted with every new development in the history of reading and writing, so one can only imagine what new ways we will learn to reason. The future is exciting, and change will always be on the brain.

Sullivan's Blog vs. Harris's Writing

In Harris’s book on writing, he describes the subject as a process of, “drawing on, commenting on, and adding to the works of others.” While to some this could be seen as plagiarism, he sees it as a chance to revisit the works of other intellectuals. He emphasizes using the writing techniques of others in order to become a better academic writer. His purpose of academic writing is to convey information in response to text, which he shows in five moves; coming to terms, forwarding, countering, taking an approach, and revising. In the coming to terms section, Harris gives a theory for reading. It states that in order to understand a text one needs to rewrite it. I agree with this statement because many texts that are from before our time are often very difficult to understand, but readings from our time are relatively easy to grasp. This is due to the fact that we know how to write in the same ways as authors of our time. In a sense, that our language is the same, and we can for the most part put together sentences in a similar way. Those who are able to write in Elizabethan English will be well equipped to tackle any Shakespearean play thrown their way. Sullivan’s view on blogging easily transfers over to Harris’s definition of writing. In a blog, many times a writer takes information gathered from other sources, such as news articles, and compiles it into their own opinion on the subject. From this point of view, one can easily see that blogging is considered writing in Harris’s definition.

Response to Web Habits

It only took a few quick glances at other students’ web habits to realize that my tendency to procrastinate is shared by the fellow freshman. Hardly anyone got on their computer to do just work and nothing else. Some did not even work on any school related issues at all. In fact; we all share much of the same interests in web pages for the most part. While most students have their own specific sites they enjoy visiting, almost everyone will visit one of the social networking sites to keep up with friends and make new ones.
The dominant web site that I found frequenting students’ web habits has to be Facebook. I know that it is my most visited site by far, nothing else even comes close. Other than that, the further sites visited can tell a reader a great deal about what the writer is like. One can see what the author finds humorous, music types, and even whether the person likes to stay up on celebrity gossip. I personally enjoy sports and music the most, but I do not mind reading the occasional news story just to shake things up.
In the end this exercise has taught me that I am not alone when I feel like I put everything off. We freshman do not lack motivation, we merely are still young at heart and want to converse with our friends rather than write that six page essay that’s due tomorrow. We have just left High School after four long years, and it’s not fair to abandon the friends we have shared so many moments with. As we mature, we will learn to put schoolwork first and let our friends wait on us to finish. We must accept that friends come and go, and no matter how hard you try to stop it, your high school pals will not always be with you through life.

My Web Habits

My web habits over the past few days have been very typical of a young college student. I have almost always put off all my productive work to the very last minute, and spent the majority of my time talking to my friends. If I am to succeed in college, I must learn to put my study work first. My friends will understand that I am busy with school. This exercise has revealed that a drastic change is needed in my internet habits, and I will begin working on it asap.

On Friday, September 4, I first checked my U of L email account for around five minutes. As soon as that was over, I moved to Facebook for around twenty-five minutes to talk with my friends. From there I went to Youtube to watch videos and listen to music for thirty minutes. I then went to my Blackboard account for around fifteen minutes, and downloaded some important documents for my bio class. With that completed I read some news articles on Yahoo for twenty minutes.

On Saturday, September 5, I started the day checking my various email accounts for around fifteen minutes. With that completed, I listened to some music on Youtube for ten minutes, and then my mind turned to sports. I was on ESPN's website checking football scores for around thirty minutes. With my sports fix over, I checked my Facebook site for about five minutes, and then skyped with a friend for ten minutes. My final move was to check some different news sites for twenty minutes.

2.) Response to Sullivan

Sullivan’s essay, “Why I Blog,” is an interesting take on the online community that has developed due to the creation of the web log. To him, blogging is an entire world away from the structured form of writing published in newspapers and magazines; there is no editing or final draft, there is just one draft of all the writer’s thoughts. Because of this, he sees blogging as the most personal form of writing out there. There is no editor to watch your back, if you screw up or say something wrong, it’s all on you. This is why I think Andrew Sullivan blogs, the personality that goes along with it.
A blog is like a log of all the thoughts and writings of a single author. For this reason a blog is a completely personal endeavor, which is why Andrew Sullivan enjoys keeping one. He likes that it is instantaneous, and thoughts are not planned out. Readers will see the first draft of the paper, instead of a final copy after multiple revisions. The writer is completely responsible for any mistakes; there is no editor to watch his back. He likes the criticism received and the praise when the audience enjoys his writing. The feedback is instant because there is no need to write a letter to an editor, readers simply add comments to tell how they feel. As he said in his essay, “The feedback is instant, personal, and brutal.”
I believe Andrew Sullivan’s take on blogs is an explanation of why they are so popular. Blogging is the most personal form of writing and has more of a voice than academic papers, as well as published writing. Writers can express emotions on a minute-by-minute basis, and publishing it involves just the click of a mouse. It is truly like the extreme sport in the writhing community due to all the risk involved. However, the thrill of the written word will always allure those in the writing community to the blog.