Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The REAL Blog Post #10 ;)

The most important lesson i learned in Professor Fornes English 101 class is that all the skills I learned during my highschool years are technically worthless. Contrary to what was taught in highschool, I learned to try to cut my sentences in half, whereas I used to believe that the sentences which were longer, were better. This semester my writing style has changed. I now spend more time revising and editing my papers. In my other classes, there isn't as much emphasis on the grammatical and sentence structure issues of essays. Therefore, when writing for English, I have to be more careful. My writing process has of course changed. I spend more time on my papers and assignments to ensure they are done better. I am very grateful to my professor for help and of course to my lil buddy, Heather, for making sure I was awake for class every tuesday and thursday.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Sources


  • My first source will be some of the text messages that I have collected from various people that chow a level of emotion. This is very important because it will give a first hand look at the argument my paper is trying to make.

  • My second source is an article fromthe departmen of communications about the sociallinguistics of teenagers who have incorperated texting into their everyday lives. http://extra.shu.ac.uk/daol/articles/v1/n1/a3/thurlow2002003-paper.html

  • My third source is an article from ScienceDirect explaining a new text messaging system called eMoto. The reason behind including this is to showcase how companies are trying to get the text users to show their emotion while texting

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Research ~~> Blog Prompt #8

~Research Questions~
  1. How does text messaging affect the people interact with each other?
  2. What percentage of Americans use text messaging?
  3. How does text messaging affect the way people express their emotions through elctronic communication, as well as personal(Face-to-Face) interaction?

~Search Terms~

  1. Text Messaging
  2. Expressing Emotion
  3. Multi-media Messaging

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Prospectus ~~> Blog post #7

It’s happening everywhere, in the car, at home, during class, during church. To some it would seem that an epidemic has hit not just America, but the entire world. The actions have caused wrecks and saved lives. I am talking about text messaging, the easy, convenient, vastly popular new way to connect to each other. It’s a common misconception that texting is very unemotional. This view comes from both those who use the service regularly and those who couldn’t type a text message to save their lives. However, as texting messaging is usually between friends and family members, if a person really knows the person they are communicating with, they can tell the feelings of the person sending the messages. This a very important subject, as it affects most of the people in our society. It is also an arguable topic for the reason stated earlier, many believe the technology is turning us into a mechanical society.
This topic will not have a lot of specific research, as this area has not been researched very much. However, I will be able to find information on the growing trend of texting over calling and the effect it has had on our society. I can use these articles to lay a foundation for not only my argument, but the counter argument as well.
Text messaging is a fast growing trend and as users of this technology, we must learn how to ‘read between the lines’ in order to truly understand the messages being sent to us. While it is true that some people intend to be unemotional while using text messaging, the majority of people express their emotion by subtle changes in the way they type and these changes can be seen by receivers who truly care about the person they are interacting
with.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Technology and Personal Life (BP#6)

There are many ways in todays society in which a person can communicate with their friends, family, and others they come into contact with everyday. As a college student living on campus, I use the available technologies quite frequently to stay in contact with people. I use a cell phone, e-mail, Facebook, yahoo, Gmail, and a few other ways to electronically stay in touch with people. This greatly improves the whole 'college experience' because I can get in touch with just about anyone in a matter of hours, minutes, or even seconds. Personally, many of my relationships have been helped by this. I am able to talk to my Grandma, who raised me and is like my mother, everday. Several of my friends also rely on this technology to stay in touch with boyfriends or girlfriends who are back in their hometown or overseas. It is believed by some that this technolgoy is making us very impersonal people. I would have to disagree. One of my best relationships was kept alive thanks top the use of instant messaging, text messaging and cell phone calls. My best friend lives in Florida, and its as if she never left because i am able to talk to her everyday.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Cover Letter

Dear Professor Fornes:

When beginning English 101, I thought the course was going to be a breeze. I was not quite prepared, even from my high school AP course, for the effort I was going to have to put into my writing. While spending time developing and writing my essays, my style has improved. I have learned how to adequatly proofread in order to catch my errors. These developing skills are revealed through my writing portfolio.
I began this course with a fairly decent background in writing and the development of essays. I have always been fairly confident when writing essays for class and my grammer is usually good. Even so, I have still struggled with developing my closing arguements, a skill that I believe can only be perfected through practice.
In my first essay, "Facing the Facebook," I at first had trouble following the claims of the author of the essay. He seemed to have so many claims that I was not sure how to set up my essay. Upon learning that I did not have to align my essay to his, I was able to construct a paper with a good base and develop it into a readable and 'flowing' essay.
As i go on through my college career, i hope to become an even better writer. I would like to improve all of the skills it takes to be a successful writer, not only to pass my courses, but also to be a contributing member of society.