10600-02=10598

Sultan, Abdullah J. "Addiction to Mobile Text Messaging Applications Is Nothing to “lol” about." The Social Science Journal 51 (2013): 57-69. General OneFile. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.

The purpose of this article is threefold: It aims to describe messaging behaviors, look at personality traits and the potential influences of messaging, and to “identify a potential driver of the excessive use of these applications.” It focuses specifically on the apps Blackberry Messenger and WhatsApp, which send messages over the Internet, thus reducing fees. Among other topics, it discusses the trends among introverted and extroverted people and the addiction to mobile messaging.

Harrison, Marissa A., and Angela L. Gilmore. "U Txt WHEN? College Students’ Social Contexts of Text Messaging." The Social Science Journal 49 (2012): 513-18. General OneFile. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.

This article aims to look at the social situations associated with texting. It discusses a survey in which 102 college students were asked between 2009-2010 about their communication methods. It provides the data collected, with percentages broken down into five categories: romance, staying connected, escaping the present, social breaches, maleficence, and sexting. This shows when people text, and then determines how it relates to societal norms and sociability.

Junco, Reynol. "In-class multitasking and academic performance.” Computers in Human Behavior 28 (2012): 2236-2243. Science Direct. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

This article talks about multitasking in an academic setting. It specifically deals with the use of cell phones among college student, but it also covers other uses of technology that college students use on a daily basis (including social networks and computers). The article takes a look at how multitasking affects GPAs.

Pierce, Tamyra. “Social anxiety and technology: Face-to-face communication versus technological communication among teens.” Computers in Human Behavior 25 (2009): 1367–1372. Science Direct. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

This article takes a look at social anxieties and shyness and how technology can play a part. It discusses the positive sides, such as giving a feeling of belonging to shy people, and it discusses the problems, in the sense that technology can be used to (attempt to) replace face-to-face contact. This particularly survey deals with 280 students from high schools, with students ranging in age from 14 to 20 (that’s not a typo). Results of this study show that females, who tend to be more anxious than males, use technology more for communication purposes than males.

Samoglou, Emmanual. “Do you have a tweeting disorder?” Canadian Business 84.16 (2011): 84. General OneFile. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

wut crystal has 2 say.

In 2008, linguist David Crystal wrote the article “2b or Not 2b?” in the Guardian. In the article, Crystal discusses the rising trend of texting. The idea for texting began in the 80s but was not a realized idea until the 90s (Crystal 2b 746). Texting, throughout its history, has, much like other new forms of technology, caused fear (745–46). Some of these fears include that it negatively affects spelling and the more standard use of the English language (747). Crystal dispels these notions, first by noting how abbreviations have been around for centuries, then by stating that texting would serve no purpose if people were not understood (747–48). Recent studies even show that the earlier a child receives a cell phone, the better their spelling will in fact be (752–53). In addition to talking about texting as simply a means of communication, Crystal also brings up the trend of using texting as a means of literature (750–51). He cites a 2007 poetry contest by T-Mobile as well as attempts at the “m-novel,” both of which condensed the typical literary forms into shorter texts (750–51). Crystal, unlike the people he sets out to disprove, does not believe that texting is ruining the English language, but rather that it is the next step in the evolution of the language.

Artifact 1: David Crystal gave a talk on texting and tweeting two years after his article was published in the Guardian.

o how the times have changed.

Texting has been controversial since its inception. Language purists have been saying for years how it is ruining the English language (745). Crystal wrote his article in 2008, which was at a turning point in texting’s history. When texting first became an option, the letters were paired alphabetically with numbers. As time went on, companies developed phones that had full QWERTY keyboards. While Palm, Blackberry and similar brands all had the full keyboard, it was not until 2007 that the keyboard began to be the norm. 2007 was the year the first iPhone came out, which arguably changed the course of texting. After the iPhone came many other smartphones, each with full QWERTY keyboards, autocorrect, and autocomplete features. As more people began to purchase smartphones, it stands to reason that the amount of texting increased. It was, therefore, an appropriate time in 2008 for Crystal to write an article addressing the issues that many had with texting.

Fig 2a. A graph showing the increase in text messages sent in Canada between 2006 and 2011. From an article by Aldo Panessidi.

Throughout the article, Crystal tries to refute the idea the texting is ruining the English language. Were Crystal to write the article in 2014, he would have to change many of his points. His literary argument would not hold. Even college students today were unaware that books based on texting were ever “a thing.” I would venture to guess that he would also have fewer, albeit ever-strong, opponents; if only twenty percent of texters were using abbreviations back in 2008, even fewer should be using them now, now that phones are almost all equipped with autocomplete, thus rendering many traditional complaints baseless.

Fig 2b. A text message displaying feelings toward text speech. Posted by Grammarly.

There are also fewer limitations when it comes to short message sending. In fact, messages do not have to be all that short anymore. Most phone plans now come with unlimited texting, and even the ones that do not may not charge by the character, since that’s no longer the catch. (The catch nowadays is in the cost of a data plan). Abbreviations would also no longer have to be part of the art that is the texted haiku. If someone wanted to continue the new literary style started via text, they would have to take to Twitter, as that would be the only way to maintain the constraints. Another limitation that Crystal brings up is screen size. Screens have increased over the years, to the point where it’s almost like holding a small tablet for some people. Again, this changes the writing style, since more words can be viewed at once. Really, many of the features of texting that make it unique from other communication are null-and-void, other than the speed at which a message can be sent and the device on which one would read the message. While there are, of course, still those who detest the text, much of what they detest are now non-issues.

audiance. *audience. Autocorrect only works when you don’t want it to.

Crystal geared his article, knowingly or not, predominantly at an older generation. While this is not explicitly stated, as the target audience rarely is, the shear justification of texting is directed at those who did not grow up with it, for whom it is not a natural part of life. At one point, Crystal says that “people think that the written language seen on mobile phone screens is new and alien” (747), but that’s only for those who have not grown up with texting; youth have never had the problem of deciding, when, where, why, or how to text. Additionally, speaking from personal experiences, people of the texting generation are not very likely to pick up and read a newspaper, at least not as likely as their parents, in which this article was published, so even the publication method has limited the audience to a slightly (or not so slightly) older demographic. Another hint to the target audience is Crystal’s use of the word “youngsters,” which one would rarely ever say when actually addressing a young person (747).

The only knowledge that one needs to get anything out of the article is knowledge of what texting is. Even some of the oldest living members of the community are probably at least aware of the concept, even if not how to do it. And with the exception of some less developed countries, most of the world has probably experienced at least the idea of texting. But even though anyone can get something out the article, such as the history of texting or some of the things people have tried with it, writing books, for example, the younger generation does not need convincing; texting is simply a part of life for them.

These are the people who will bring a myriad of ideas and notions about texting to the text: adults such as Lynne Truss who have nearly fully embraced texting (Truss, 939); those “cool parents” who have completely embraced texting and consistently use abbreviations (much to their children’s dismay); and those, most likely the gand- and great grandparents of the current generation, who have never texted and have neither the desire nor the need to do so. Even though the article is not directed at them, the current generation could read the article, too. They would bring an even wider array of knowledge of the subject matter, having experienced texting their entire lives.

Most of this theory on his audience, though, is coming from an American college student in 2014. It is possible that younger people read this article in 2008. With the exception of some of the vocabulary, such as the aforementioned “youngsters,” this article does no alienate any particular audience member.

Fig 4. Different generations. From an article by Tom Buswell.

y is he writing?

David Crystal wrote his newspaper article in 2008. This was a transition time for texting. Though phones had been capable of sending texts since the 90s, it did not begin to gain popularity until 2001 (Crystal 2b 746). In addition to texting’s rising popularity, more phones were beginning to have more “linguistically sensible” keyboards, including the recently released iPhone (749). At that point in texting’s short history, it’s usage increased (Panessidi). There was controversy surrounding it and its effects on language, so it would make sense that a linguist would step in and try to clear things up.

The primary goal of the article is to persuade. The article is mostly fact, but there is a fine line between informative and persuasive. Crystal wastes no time in pointing out the hatred some people feel toward texting, stating in only the second paragraph that people have referred to it as both a “digital virus” and “penmanship for illiterates” (Sutherland qtd. in Crystal 745). He then spends most of the article debasing that argument.

In debasing the argument that texting is ruining the language, Crystal predominantly utilizes logos; most of his arguments are fact-based. In refuting the idea that texting weakens spelling, he first cites Eric Partridge’s Dictionary of Abbreviations, which came out approximately fifty years before texting was even an idea (Crystal 2b 748). Similarly, some abbreviations (such as IOU) date back hundreds of years (748). And to those who complain about abbreviations making their way into daily speech, Crystal does not hesitate to point out that words such as “bus” are almost exclusively heard in their abbreviated forms (748). His final piece of evidence against the notion that texting is ruining the language is that there have been studies done in which children who have had phones longer tend to be better spellers (752).

A more indirect argument that Crystal address is that texting affects literature. This argument, he counters, by citing the 2007 poetry contest that T-Mobile hosted and the novels, such as Distance, written in 2004 in China, and Deep Love, a collaborative Japanese novel, that were written all through text messaging (750–51). Again, these are facts that show how literature develops over time.

Fig 4. Excerpt from a 2009 m-novel. By Sam Wilson.

stands. stupid autocorrect. i meant 'stance'.

Having read a fraction of Crystal’s autobiography, I know he can come across as being good-natured and as having a sense of humor. In this article, however, he seems to come across as very fact-oriented. He does this politely. The phrase “you’re wrong, idiot” would not likely appear in a newspaper, but of this article were a discussion that Crystal were having with someone completely opposed to texting, that kind of phrasing may be used. But here, in this article, Crystal phrases his points diplomatically: “People think that the written language seen on mobile phone screens is new and alien, but all the popular beliefs about texting are wrong” (747).

Fig 5. The cover of David Crystal's autobiography. (artist indiscernible)

The only remnants of his sense of humor come through in his examples such as “slanguage,” “digital virus,” or “pillaging our punctuation” (Crystal 2b  745; Sutherland qtd. in Crystal 745). These are all other people’s thoughts on texting, but Crystal chooses to bring these particular thoughts in most likely because, in addition to supporting his argument, they incorporate his own personality into an article in which he tries to maintain his distance. Crystal manages to stay away from the first person entirely, despite the flexibility that could be afforded to one writing for a newspaper. He also sticks to facts to back up his points instead of his own personal experiences with texting.

Even still, he does not feel distant. The text as a whole feels more like a conversation, for example, than a textbook or academic article (though either of these could be equally engaging but would also never be printed in a newspaper).

Crystal is clearly pro-texting, as shown throughout his numerous examples of how productive it is, citing the literacy rates and improved spelling, as well as refuting the arguments surrounding abbreviations (749–53), but his stance is particularly clear in his closing sentence, in which he says that “the language as a whole will not decline. In texting what we are seeing, in a small way, is language in evolution” (753). The important thing to remember about Crystal throughout all of this is that he is a linguist, and linguists do not generally cringe at changes and abnormalities but rather are fascinated by them.

In his article, Crystal draws on a combination of logical claims and facts to prove his points. Because the vast majority of his claims are supported by indisputable facts, what Crystal has to say feels more reputable. Occasionally a little pathos sneaks in when he uses the more extreme terminology, such as referencing the “doom-ladened prophecies” (752). In such examples, he pulls at our senses of humor. There is, arguably, a hint of ethos in Crystal’s appeal to societal values. In one part of the article he references all of the abbreviations that have been acceptable for years or even centuries (748–49). He is not only appealing to logic here, but also to what has been instilled in us as acceptable.

he wrote an SA, not a text.

David Crystal wrote “2b or Not 2b?” as a newspaper article for the Guardian. Despite the apparent extensive length of many articles one finds in a newspaper, they have their limits. Unlike an academic research paper, the author cannot spend more than a few pages discussing their ideas. Moreover, newspaper articles have to be accessible. They reach a wide variety of readers, and it is generally expected that any literate reader can read and understand a simple newspaper article. Crystal is not writing about a himself; it is not a personal essay, therefore he needs to extract information from external examples instead of his own persona experiences.

There is really no other medium that Crystal could have used to write this exact paper. As a letter, he would have had to direct the content at a very specific person. Even though his audience is clear, a letter would make the audience incredibly narrow. A blogpost is not an impossible method for writing an article like this, though one may expect more personal testimony. And then the Facebook post: Facebook posts, while not designed to be as short as tweets, are not to take up pages. At the most, a person may write a small paragraph.

Fig 6. The old Facebook limitations. Photo by technoexam.

Both a blog entry and a Facebook post leave the possibility for easy reader-interaction, which may deter the writer from saying certain things or wording parts of the article in certain ways in order to avoid excessively negative comments. A writer may not (and should not) care what the comments say for the most part, but they can nevertheless be disturbing. That is not to say that a reader could not write to the paper and have his or her comment be heard, but a comment online is fast, easy, and potentially anonymous.

Personally, I do no see anything controversial enough that would cause Crystal to face retaliation.

tuck and tumbl

The blog for this class is not the first blog I’ve created. When I went to Germany over the summer, I blogged using WordPress. While WordPress may seem complicated, it’s really rather simple to figure out. The default view is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, so you can essentially type in a box, hit publish, and be on your way. There are plenty of formatting options, should one feel so inclined. 

Tumblr blogs are not the most user-friendly of blogs. I have friends who love Tumblr, but I believe they are the people who simply choose to tumble other people’s content rather than generate their own. Admittedly it looks a little nicer than my WordPress blog, but I could improve the other if I wanted to. The concept of “notes” to which I cannot reply instead of “comments” is disconcerting and a little annoying.

Wordpress is powerful enough that it can even create an entire website, if that’s the goal. If you know HTML, CSS, and other programs, you’re able to create a rather complex website.

Recently I began working with Squarespace because I wanted a more user-friendly platform and a prettier website. I had content all over the Internet, but in a matter of a couple of days, I was able to create a single website that looked good. In the process, I transferred over my summer blog and most of the photos I’d uploaded as part of the posts. It was easy, and everything looks nice now. Squarespace is between Tumblr and WordPress. It gives you some flexibility, but not too much; that is, I can’t break Squarespace. Even though I’m now paying for a service, I feel like I finally have something that looks coherent and professional.

Regardless of my personal complaints about Tumblr as a platform, I learned that a rhetorical analysis via a blog is more complicated than a formal essay. Everything that should blend together nicely doesn’t necessarily, but that’s okay, since there will be visual interruptions. It also feels less formal, since it’s being published to a platform that does not carry the rules of academia, even though the content itself must retain as many of the academic guidelines as possible.

Artifacts: compare my old blog with my new website

works cited

Buswell, Tom. “How to Market to Different Generations.” Send Me the Manager. Send Me the Manager, 21 Jan 2013. Web. 24 Feb 2014.

Crystal, David. “2b or Not 2b?” Everyone’s an Author: with Readings. Eds. Andrea Lunsford et al. New York: Norton, 2013. 745–753. Print.

Crystal, David. “Just a Phrase I’m Going Through: My Life in Language.” Routledge: London, 2009. Print.

Grammarly. “There is no excuse for textspeak because autocomplete.” Facebook, 22 Dec 2013. PNG. 21 Feb 2014.

O’Brien, Ciara. “Timeline; The history of the iPhone.” The Irish Times. The Irish Times, 10 Sep 2013. Web. 18 Feb 2014.

Panessidi, Aldo. “Exponential Increase in Text Messaging.” Insider Blog. Pure Mobile Canada, 13 Dec 2011. Web. 24 Feb 2014.

technoexam. “How to post long Facebook status updates of more than 420 characters.” TechnoExam. Wordpress, 12 June 2011. Web. 24 Feb 2014.

The RSA, dir. “David Crystal - Texts and Tweets: myths and realities.” YouTube. YouTUbe, 28 June 2010. Web. 23 Feb 2014.

Truss, Lynne. “The Joys of Texting.” Everyone’s an Author: with Readings. Eds. Andrea Lunsford et al. New York: Norton, 2013. 939–941. Print.

Wilson, Sam. “Kontax 1.” Clockwork Zoo, 2009. PDF.

Are the changes to our blog supposed to be in content or in style? I’ll cover parts of each, because the reality is that the groups of people probably wouldn’t be reading my blog, at least not in its current state. My assumption is that they're already coming to my blog, and I have to direct what they see to them and their interests.

1. Spectators at a Live Football Game: This is one group that I would never write for, since I tend to have nothing to do with sports; they confuse me to the nth degree. Were I to write for this group, I would first have to do extensive research to find out what kind of material would be of interest to them that I could write about uniquely, since so much is already available, then I’d have to do even more research to know how to write about football/sports topics. Keeping with the theme of the current blog, I could try to weave football references into my posts.

2. Visitors to a Major Art Museum: Even though I know about as much about art as about sports, it would still be easier to write to them. If this were the case, I’d focus on local art that, while there’s most likely already an online presence thereof, it still would have a more limited audiences. This would mean profiling local artists, going to art shows, and making speaking of artwork. Keeping with current theme of the blog, I could find examples of artwork that exemplify what I’m writing about.

3. Cinema Attendees for a Hollywood Movie: This is an audience I feel at least mildly equipped to write for. I was an arts editor on my high school newspaper, so I’ve read a fair number of movie reviews. I’d do just that in my blogpost: write movie reviews. Keeping with the current theme, I would utilize movie references.

4. Facebook/Social Media Friends: If my Facebook friends were to read my blog, I would make my writing style there emulate that of my Facebook posts. I tend to use (unless I make an embarrassing error) correct grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling. Occasionally I use even more pretentious grammar than I would when writing in a paper (such as the use of the word “wherein”). I write colloquially, though, posing a lot of questions without answers, observations, and complaints. I could easily write about almost anything in this style, though it would not be the most productive of pieces. These posts would probably be the shortest, not because I have the least to say, but because of the sheer convention of writing relatively short posts.

5. Readers of Academic Articles: For those willing to read academic articles, I would advertise and write in the blog much in the same way I already am. I would clean up the writing a little so it wouldn’t be too informal (remove some first person and write less like I’m speaking). But the principle, the topics about which I’d write, are probably like the ones we’re writing about now. I may expand to include my own research interests, but I would write, cite, and present the more “formal” research topics much in the same way we’re already assigned to submit them, since we’re using it to practice our academic writing.

David Crystal’s article “2b or Not 2b?” was published in the Guardian in 2008. He begins by quoting John Humphrys, who feels that texting is violently ruining language. Others have referred to texting as a “digital virus” or the “penmanship for illiterates,” but this has always been the case with technological advancements, though people seem to be particularly afraid of texting.

Crystal then goes into a brief history of the SMS message, which was first conceived in the 1980s. Because the phone companies didn’t know how to charge people, the product was not realized until the 90s.

Crystal then moves on to dispel some popular fears. First, there’s that spelling is affected negatively by texting. That’s not the case. The point of texting is to be understood, so the author of a text is not going to abbreviate or get so creative with the text so as not to achieve the ultimate goal. Additionally, there are certain people, he cites the older generation, and institution, such as universities, that will always text using the prescribed standards for English spelling and grammar, since it is particularly important that they be understood. Second, there’s the myth that people write only in text-speech. The number, he says, of people using abbreviations is actually minimal, capping of around twenty percent of the population of texters at the highest, but even those people only use them in a relatively small percentage of their texts.

Then there is the notion that texting abbreviations are a new development. They began well before the advent of the text message, dating back anywhere from twenty to one hundred years ago. Among the most noticeable abbreviations are using single letters, such as “c” instead of “see,” and digits, such as “2” for “two,” “to,” or “two.” Additionally, the concept of first-letter abbreviators, such as “n” for “no,” date back to the seventeenth century. In fact Crystal notes that, Eric Partridge created the Dictionary of Abbreviations a full fifty years before texting was even an idea. Similarly, word shortening has been around for a long time, too. Most people don’t think twice about using “fridge,” “bus,” or “vet,” yet these are all short forms of their actual words. Playing with sounds, words, syntax, and orthography  are things people find fun, and texting is the result of people having fun with language.

Next, Crystal breaks down the types of language that can be seen in text, including full words, shortened words, and logograms. Ignoring the concept of spacing between words is another characteristic discussed. As part of  this, he notes that texters are cognizant of their “deviant spellings.”

And then comes a complaint: the keypad is not “linguistically sensible,” about which he goes on for while.

Throughout the article, Crystal provides various examples to illustrate the different uses for texting and the lack of uniformity therein. As an example of how everyone has their own texting style, Crystal points to a 2002 case in which a father was convicted of murdering his daughter. It was discovered that he had forged his daughters texts that created his alibi.

Then he begins to discuss the more artistic sides of texting. In 2007, T-Mobile held a contest (which only around 300 people entered) to write a poem in a text. To prove the point that not everyone writes with text abbreviations, the winner used all proper spelling. The runner up, on the contrary, used text abbreviations exclusively. To Crystal, he sees little difference in trying to write with a restricted one hundred sixty characters and trying to write a haiku with a five-seven-five syllable pattern.

Some authors, as another example, have also attempted to write full novels. Japanese author Yoshi wrote Deep Love, which was eventually adapted into a film. In 2004, one chapter of Distance, an “m-novel” was sent every day via text in China. As time went on, the 160 character limit became too constricting, thus the use of text speech became required. Some have experimented with font, size, and color of text as well. Moving away from the actual text message, some authors have published real books comprised entirely of text messages.

Toward the end, Crystal elaborates on what he began to say earlier, which si that, despite the “doom-ladened prophecies,” many recent studies indicate that the longer a child has had a cellphone and been texting, the more literate the child will be. Those who text, children included, must know the standards for language, that is, what is acceptable, before they can begin to work with abbreviations and alternate spellings.

I'm going to try for a series: three artifacts that deal with the same topic. The topic is Net Neutrality, which has recently been in the news (though not as well publicized as it could've been). Let's see how this goes:

Logos: an appeal to reason

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57617576-38/worried-about-net-neutrality-maybe-its-the-fcc-that-should-really-concern-you/

This article is a very, for lack of a better word, "plain" recap of the court's recent decision on the FCC and Net Neutrality. It is nothing more than a presentation of facts and opinions, and while the side of the argument is clear (that we should be concerned about the FCC's power), it is pleading to the reader's sense to do something.

Pathos: an appeal to emotion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QGbCp7vD1Y

The intonation in the above video is the biggest way he appeals to emotion. He even calls his video a rant. He isn't exactly shouting, but he's certainly talking emphatically with the intent of getting you riled up and ready to act. 

Ethos: an appeal to ethics

http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/classes/188/fall11/p211.pdf

In the segment "Net Neutrality Flaws" in the paper linked above, the authors make an ethical appeal. Unlike the examples I gave for logos and and pathos, they are arguing the Net Neutrality laws may not actually be as good as many people think (though they ultimately decide that it's best to leave the Internet the way that is...a shocking revelation). They do this by citing others who have already joined in the discourse.

A Spanish saying which translates almost nicely to “Never go to bed without having learned something new.”

One of the quotations (not quotes, that’s a verb) I try to live by daily.

As an explanation to the title of the post (since it's apparently impossible to reply to a note):

The course is WRTG 10600.

We're in section 02.

This is written as 10600-02.

Read that, now, as 10600 minus 02.

What do you get when you solve 10600 minus 02? 10598.

As I said, I'm not a math person. Just trying to be creative.

My name is Ben Gaynor. I'm from Massachusetts, specifically Sudbury (not too far from Boston). Despite the title of this blog (which is the course number, 10600-02, treated as a math equation), I'm not a math person. Sticking with the same side of the brain, though, I am a language person. To that end, I am majoring in Spanish and will probably add a German minor in the not-so-distant future. If timing permits, I'd also like to add a minor in CMD.

Outside of classes, my interest in language prevails. I have started to self-teach Italian; I study the grammars of Spanish, German, and English; and I work as a copy editor on the Ithacan. Having done theatre (the technical aspects—you will never see me act) throughout high school, I now work on productions for IC Teatro, which produces Spanish (or bilingual) plays. To the non-academic end, I have a long list of television shows I hope to, one day, finish watching (unlikely), and I'd also like to learn to blow glass.

In short, I'm not all that interesting.