Analysis of Peer's Paper

1. The paper is arguing that people don't stop to think about the effect that changing methods of writing has on the world.
2. The underlying premise of this argument is that new technological advances have not changed writing but instead have brought it to life. The medium can have an immense impact on writing and new technology is the ultimate key to the future of writing.
3. Three rhetorical moves:
      i. Quoting Bolter
      ii. Argumentation; challenges society to think about the effect that new technology has.
      iii. Figurative Language when comparing hypertext to an onion
These are successful because it challenges the reader to think about the technologies that are so common in their everyday lives and question how they effect society.

I recommend that you try using more descriptive language because there are a few generalizations.

Project 3 Analysis

1. My purpose in writing about Port Jefferson was to inform the reader of a place in which I feel two ways about. The two ways aren't blatantly obvious, as we were asked to describe them as two different shades of gray and not make them seem black and white. I want the audience to know exactly what Down Port is like.
2. My audience for this piece of writing would be the inquisitive traveler or even people that are locals to Port Jefferson because they may not be informed of their town's history.
3. Rhetorical moves that I use are imagery, argumentation, and persuasion. These moves could be more developed because of the lack of time that I had to write the actual paper.
I think I should try being more descriptive and being more interested in my own writing. If I'm not interested; my reader will definitely not be interested.
4. I think the whole paper needs further development by using more history and facts and by adding more imagery so that the reader can feel more informed about the town.
5. My question for Prof. Lay is: What did you mean by depicting it in two different shades of gray instead of black and white?

I've Been Thinking...

I've been thinking about my own draft for Project 3, and I have to tell you that I started it at midnight today and did it in an hour and a half until 1:30. It is definitely not my best work because I did it last minute on Halloween weekend.

Poetry From Billy Collins

Billy Collins often portrays places in two ways. He often seems to have mixed feelings about a place. In "The Lesson" Collins is describing his relationship with History. He seems to be studying history so much that he believes he is actually living in it and has a love/hate relationship with it; as if he understands it so well at times that it feels like a good friend and at others it seems distant, agitated, and unfamiliar.

Collins also feels uneasy about writing in his poem "Madmen;" describing his insecurities about writing. These insecurities come from times when he is overly confident and begins to talk about works that he has not finished yet; "jinxing" the writing. He feels so confident about writing that he sabotages it for himself. It is very similar to my experiences with golf. If I'm playing particularly well to begin the round, I start to think too much about how unusual and rare the round is and I immediately lose focus. I no longer play well because I get ahead of myself and think about the finished product when I should be taking it one shot at a time. Collins should be taking his writing slow and carefully but instead he thinks about the finished poem and loses the specific details that the writing would have been composed of. Of course this is going to provoke uncomfortable, mixed feelings in Collins about writing.

A sentence starts out like...

A sentence starts out as a thought. The thought first enters your mind and then you formulate it into words that might help others understand where you're coming from. It starts out with this thought and then you add descriptive words so that the imagery can entice the reader and make them feel exactly as you do. A sentence starts out with almost no effort; as we formulate words and conversation as we think most of the time. It is just second nature to humans to formulate a sentence based on their thoughts. It may be difficult when you begin the sentence if the subject is difficult to describe or if the subject is one that strikes up emotion. There is no specific way that a sentence starts because sentences are provoked by many different occurrences or emotions.

It's possible...

It's possible that home might be like the golf course. I've basically grown up on the golf course; playing alongside my dad as he worked. Learning many little things about the profession and the actual place. I've spent hours upon hours at the golf course. Not one specific course but many different ones. I've eaten all three meals at the golf course; breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I've sat on the patio of the clubhouse and had friendly chats with competitors and their parents. I've had team practices for high school and college on the golf course. The teams come together like a family. Our team is the family and the golf course is our home. When we have matches or tournaments the golf course only brings us closer together as we support each other and share stories of our rounds at dinner. I practice constantly at the golf course, aiming for perfection or advancement at least; just as would relentlessly practice at home.

Home is not like the rock show last night

Home is not like the rock show that I went to last. With all the underaged people trying to sneak in and pretend that they met the age 16 minimum. The man checking I.D.'s would not let these people in even though they had purchased tickets. That would not happen at home. The bar and bartender were there but not in use except for the occasional soda because everyone was underaged. And when someone did buy a soda, it was so expensive. The soda's at home are not expensive. The people there were all excited to see Ryan. Ryan was the headliner and is also my friend. Ryan's not at home either. They put the fog machine on and Ryan did his sound check calling everybody to stand up. "Nobody sits down at rock shows," he says. This is not like home. At home we sit down. The nachos were soggy. This would never happen at home. The stool that I first sat in had unstable legs and made me fear it would collapse underneath me. Ryan's mother was there but mine was most definitely not. Ryan is a transgender who has been on the Tyra Banks show and Larry King Live. You wouldn't see that in my house. We could be as loud as we want. We danced in the middle of the floor. People stared as we danced but we didn't care because we were feeling the music and Ryan was feeding off our excitement. Home is not like this.

Home is not like...

Home is not like college. Home is not like the golf course. It's not like rock show that I went to last and it is most definitely not like my dorm room last night. Home is not like the subway train in the city or the park that my friend would ride her bike to alone at night. Home is not like my favorite restaurant which is not generally accepted as a nice place to eat. Home is not like this classroom with all the tired students maintaining their motivation to get through this class and get the required credits to graduate. Home is not like the harbor in Port Jefferson with the ferry and ice cream shop. Home is not like the harbor at Greenport either.

Home is like...

Home is like my best friends and home made food. It's all about family; my brothers and sister. It's my dad's house and my mom's house. It's warm and cozy. It's comfortable and relaxing. I love it and I hate it. But even when I hate it, I still appreciate it. I escape to it and I escape from it. Home is my mom's hard work and loving spirit.

Part 1 Reading Quiz 2

The goal of all forms of media is to be efficient and helpful. As technology advances, constant remediation occurs to outdo the latest writing space. The competition to create a more useful form of media is what keeps the world moving forward. Examples of this are the constant refashioning of game systems. There is a new game system introduced at least once a year; whether it be a remodel of one that was already introduced, such as Playstation's one, two and three or an entirely new system; the circumstance when the Wii came out. Each system that is marketed serves the same general purpose: entertainment through video games but they all function in different ways; with varying graphics, controllers, games, and physical appearance. The production of new game systems will never cease to occur because humans like to advance and do not stay satisfied with one option; as with any other aspect of life. It is not necessary to keep advancing for survival and it could be argued that no more technological advances should be made because the world will become a very superficial place with no ties left to nature. However, this argument would never be accepted and followed because it is within the will of humans to try and better their lives and surroundings; giving them something to live for. If humans were to be completely content with every aspect of their life and not yearn for any remediation, there would be no will to live.

Taylor Mali, "Like You Know"

After viewing Taylor Mali's performance of "Like You Know" and watching the typography version of it, I decided that they are both very effective in their own ways. Both ways appealed to me because I'm a visual learner which means I can take more information away from something that I can view with my own eyes than if I were to just listen to it. In Mali's performance, the audience can determine the meaning and emotion by watching his facial expressions and gestures while he speaks. This is effective because as human's we have the ability to sense mood or emotion through reading someone's body language. In the print text, the audience was still provided the audio so we could sense emotion through his tone of voice but instead of watching his physical expression of it, we could get a sense of expression through the movement, font, and punctuation of the text. This was an effective method because in our world today, humans have become very experienced in reading emotion through text with all of the technology that is used to communicate across the world such as text messages on cell phones and social networking sites on the internet. I enjoyed the typography very much because I was able to follow his ideas and how he was presenting them exactly through the text. It is amazing that organizing text in that way can be just as efficient or even more so than the live performance itself.
However, if the audio were taken away from both methods of expression, the print text would be the more efficient way to communicate Mali's ideas because the words and the way that they were articulated are shown clearly. Whereas, if the audio were missing from the live performance, there would be no way of understanding what Mali is speaking about. The fact that the print text would be more effective in this way shows that print text is essential in preserving ideas for the future. In case audio accounts are lost, the print will always be there to support it.

Bolter Chapter 3 Argument

This prezi speaks of the rivalry between print text and hypertext. The presentation argues both can still be used and there doesn't need to be such a rivalry between the two. The group read straight from the print text of the prezi which suggests that they support printed text more because of their obvious dependency on it yet speak of hypertexts a majority of the time. Ending with the song and video "Why Can't We be Friends" showed their non-bias toward both types of texts and technologies. It was promoting their co-existence.

Extra Credit: John Edgar Wideman Speech

Wideman begins by sharing his passion for teaching and claiming that "teachers are heroes." He is reading an excerpt from a work in progress of his called Inspiration. It is the introduction of the work so he does not believe he needs to explain what he will be reading.

Group 3 Chapter 2 Argument

The argument in this presentation is that writing is constant, no matter how many new technologies are introduced. Writing is a part of who we are; it's our culture and technology won't change that. The writing space becomes more advanced and writers adapt to this technology. The presentation and communication of the writing has become more efficient. This presentation treats the constantly advancing technologies as a living being, with the background and diction.

Group 2 Chapter 2 Argument

The argument for this prezi, summarizing and analyzing chapter two is that technology for writing is always advancing. The new technologies will always have qualities of prior forms of writing as well as new, helpful qualities. Also argued in this presentation is that writing comes from the soul and is a very personal thing.

Are you ever afraid to write?

There are times that I am afraid to write. I think this is because I may be unsure of what I'm setting out to do; usually for a class assignment. The insecurity of not completely understanding what I'm supposed to be proving or how I can effectively persuade readers can be frightening. I feel most vulnerable when I write because I'm sharing my thoughts and the reader is criticizing how I write and quite possibly basing their view of my intelligence on that particular piece of writing. One written work can hold so much power and I don't ever want to write something meaningless that is just a waste of time for the reader and I. I always to teach myself and the reader with my writing and the thought that I might fail to do that could be really overwhelming.

Also, there are times when I may be talking about something uncomfortable or new to me and I find this intimidating. Last week for my oral communications class I wrote a motivational speech about being gay and my experience with revealing that truth to my family. I have never written freely about my sexuality for a class assignment nonetheless stood up and read those feelings to a whole classroom. When I stood up to present, that moment of fear finally sank in and I was nervous to share this writing. It was mainly because I have never been in that situation and I was sharing things that are really important to me. Opening myself up for the class to critique was really terrifying yet gratifying in the end.

In Class Writing Quiz

3. I support Krystal's claim, "I am smarter when I'm writing," because when I'm writing about my opinions and the knowledge that I have attained throughout my lifetime I begin to discover new emotions or ideas that are provoked by the older ones. I am teaching myself in a way because I am challenging myself to come up with explanations and think beyond my average conversations. I may say something that reminds me of something else and leads to a new thought. My ideas at the end of my writing usually turn out to be completely different than what I set out to express and in this way, "I am smarter when I'm writing," because I have just taught myself in that time period.

4. A writer in a digital forum, as opposed to one using just plain writing with a pen and paper might express herself in a way that is more informal or casual, using slang words or words with a lot of connotation. She might use abbreviations and not even full sentences. It depends on her position or what she is trying to achieve but a digital forum is generally less formal than a handwritten account. The form or media of writing has an impact on the expression because it also effects the formality of the writing. Different forms of media are trying to speak to different audiences. Magazines don't have the same type of writing as a formal business letter. Reading a magazine is similar to having a conversation with a friend while a business letter has more of a serious tone and is official. The type of writing that one sets out to achieve will effect their language and even writing style. A less formal piece will have more voice and show personality. It will try to be creative and descriptive. While, the formal piece will not. It is strictly business and has less room for personality and creativity. With each specific title a writer thinks and acts in a different way.

Bolter Chapter 1 Prezi

http://prezi.com/j_hpf4l6hn2m/bolter-chapter-1-introduction-writing-in-the-late-age-of-print/