Comments on: Writing Going Down the Tube…

By: holly

holly — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:01:41 +0000

What a great idea for a blog, Jeff. I am going to browse through some of the archives and read some other entries, subscribe to the feed — We are interested in Educational topics at WaSP EduTF.

I couldn’t help but stop and read this entry and leave a comment.

This is not the first time we have seen any mention of writing going down the tubes connected with digital technology. However, I do believe that many people are writing more than they would have, especially if they are running a blog or journal online. Many others may even be expanding into the more creative areas of writing.

I know, entering into the what was odd world of Internet/Web when it was very young — I acquired much better typing skills than I would have, if all this did not exist. I typed slow and not very well.

And there are some really interesting and creative ways that Twitter can be a good writing example or experience — I suggest some follow TwitterLit for instance. Much may come from that one small line of text it delivers. Writing or Reading.

On the other hand, most people using twitter, have had to find a way to compress their thoughts into a very short line, and sometimes it works out well — other times it could be better.

Twitter may actually be a neat little tool for a Creative writing classroom. One possibility – a sort of – word tennis. If one is familiar with photoshop tennis where subsequent people add to or alter the file that came before them, a sentence could be tweeted, then altered by the next person, or a line of poetry could be tweeted and someone could add the next line and so on — or a story could be started and a collaborative short story could ensue. Interesting.

Thanks for the post.

By: Ginny

Ginny — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:58:13 +0000

It’s hard for me to answer this question b/c I’ve been a grammar nerd since elementary school. My English teacher made us diagram sentences, memorize every single preposition and more. Also, as a newspaper reporter for eight years, I learned the value of self editing and trying to make sentences as concise as possible. That’s one good thing I can say about Twitter. The 140 character limit often makes you stop and rethink what you’re “tweeting” b/c it won’t fit. That forces you to self-edit, which in some cases can be a good thing (b/c let’s face it, we can all be a bit wordy sometimes).

That having been said, for whatever reason, students today are not learning how to write properly (that’s a sweeeping statement I realize, but doesn’t it seem to be completely true). So in that regard, I can see the character limits on Twitter and text messages adding fuel to this poor grammar fire.

As I write this, I realize I’ve typed b/c instead of because. Guess that’s become a habit for me.

By: Reggie

Reggie — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:35:47 +0000

I think the problem exists when kids fail to understand the context in which they write. Utilizing the ’small form’ diction of texting when operating in a more formal arena is a problem. As a teacher I’m constantly telling kids it’s not appropriate and to remember the context.

It reminds my of Jerry Yang’s missive to his Yahoo employees a few weeks ago. He didn’t use capital letters at all. Coming from a CEO, that was ‘disturbing’ to say the least. If you’re running a large company and sending out emails to a bunch of people you’re about to fire, at least capitalize..