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Nick Vallo                                                                                                       Vallo Page 1

Professor Winchock

Academic Writing

March 17, 2014

Research Narrative

            I selected this reading, The Joy of Texting by Lynne Truss, for the Rhetorical Analysis because the topic of privacy within the lines of texting fits this article perfectly.  With this specific article I can touch on how people tend to hide their texts from others, and how private the usage of texting has become.  People can have a full on conversation with others during a class, a presentation, even when they are speaking with someone else.  Texting is an extremely private way to communicate and has even become more private as you can send pictures now within texts and even in apps on phones.  Social Media is another growing form of communication that many people think is private when it really isn’t.  Pressing the send button now is something that many people really need to think about before they actually send their message or post.  For my Rhetorical Analysis I was able to depict the specifics of texting and how it evolving communication for everyone who uses it.  Texting and social media are growing every single day as people from generations older and younger use texting on a daily basis.  It has become the most common form of communication and is still growing as more and more people begin to jump on the bandwagon of texting.  The idea that texting is such a private form of communication really inspired me to choose this article for my Rhetorical Analysis.  Being that I use a phone almost twenty-four seven I really felt that the topic of texting would be something interesting to gain further knowledge of and develop an idea of how people are using texting today.  I would like to go deeper into texting and social media and how it is not a form of privacy, it is actually the opposite of that. 

In the article The Joy of Texting by Lynne Truss, she depicts many ideas of how to communicate with others through texting.  Truss shows us that there are many different ways to text (Truss 939.) You have the ability to use slang, or text properly and write in complete sentence form (Truss 940.)  But whichever way you choose to text you must make sure that your recipient can understand what you have sent to them.  The fast form of communication is taking over as the newest form of communicating with one another.  You have the ability to read a text and not respond, or you can respond right away, regardless of what you do, it’s changing the way we communicate with people, and is becoming a large and main form of communication that can be just as unreliable as reliable.  All in all texting is changing communication, some would say for the better others would say for the worse.  Truss depicts the aspects of texting fast and or slow depending on who it is that is texting (Truss 940.)  Here she speaks about how she enjoys texting fast and others enjoy waiting for some length of period before returning the text (Truss 940.)  Also Truss speaks about using acronyms, or slang to shorten text, but some people might not be able to understand what you are saying since there are so many different ways to use abbreviations and different dialect.  With newer phones that have social media applications on them as well, tying social media to Truss’ ideas will be very easy for me to accomplish.   

The research questions that interested me after reading this article were the idea of the positives and negatives of texting.  With this topic I could have addressed how Lynn depicts both sides of texting, as well as my individual interactions with texting and how I have experienced

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both sides of texting.  Another topic that was interesting to me was talking about social media.  Although it would’ve been somewhat hard to commit to this topic through just the text messaging background I would have been able to base it off of social media and texting as well.  Being that all phones have Internet so this way all of the phones would be able to access a form of social media and how phones and social media have become tied together as one, with twitter and Facebook being used as apps on many of them.  An additional topic that I would have loved to touch base on texting etiquette as well since the article is all about the decorum of texting and the certain steps that people take to text another, whether it is a longer period of time, or not using abbreviations so that other people receiving the texts can understand what is being said in the conversation.  Lastly another topic that I considered was the correlation of the abuse of texting and grades with all students.  With this specific topic I could have used many articles and facts to show whether texting was a positive or a negative thing and how it affected grades.  Finally I came around to pick the topic of the privacy of texting and other social media outlets.  I felt that this topic was perfect for the article because a main part focuses on how people tend to hide their phones during meetings, or even will leave an important event to head to the bathroom so that they can text conspicuously.  Along with this topic come the texting scandals that have happened in the past with inappropriate pictures to others.  Many photos become leaked and they are sent through text messaging, and there was even an app created, SnapChat that has caused some controversy among many people.  To add social media to this topic it was very easy because many of the texting scandals that had to do with sending inappropriate pictures ended up online for everyone to see.  

            One source that backs up my topic is an article called “Sexting Among Undergraduate Students” which speaks about how a popular act now a days has become sending inappropriate pictures otherwise known as “nudes” to other people in your phone address book.  This idea that people can send a picture of themselves showing off body parts through a phone to someone else is a direct sign on privacy through texting.  It of course is extremely common among the younger generation, but the older generation does in fact partake with this form of texting as well.  The percentages happened to be lower in the year 2008 but that is because the poll was taken prior to the addition of iPhones or any phones that can send pictures extremely easily, and even the knew popular app called SnapChat.  One poll that was taken recently was a poll at Temple University in the year 2012, and people who tend to “sext” are involved heavily with another person, usually it is people who are in a relationship.  Sexting does not directly correlate with age, because people in the younger generation have said that they have never partaken in any form of sending nudity through a text, however there is a relationship between sexting and relationships.  When speaking to adults and even young teens who are dating, many couples admitted to sexting with their significant other, saying that there were pictures sent while they were dating someone, or they’ve sent pictures to the person they are currently involved with.  Another source that helped to back up my argument was the Brett Favre scandal that broke out in 2010 (ABC News).  Favre was sending nude text messages to a sideline and former playboy model, Jenn Sterger.  Eventually the story broke out, proving my point that there truly is not privacy once you press the send button.  Favre’s decision to send Sterger photos of him and leave her voicemails as well was a decision that he made that shows how quickly news can move, and that putting something out there that you may think is private really is not.  This ties in with my third source that is a story about NFL running back Arian Foster who tweeted a picture of and MRI that he received which showed that his hamstring was injured (ESPN).  This idea is different from the “sexting”

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but has the same idea that putting something up for people to see is not always a good idea.  In this situation he has now shown everyone who follows him on twitter what his injury is, how severe it is, and where exactly he is injured.  Now for an NFL running back he is getting tackled every single play, even if his hamstring is fully healed when he plays against other teams they are going to target this injury because they know exactly where it is.  Once again going back to pressing the send button, Foster how has given direct information to his opponents, giving his competition the upper hand and leverage when he plays and competes against them.  This then ties into my fourth source that is a video (YouTube) of Herm Edwards, a former NFL coach, speaking to the rookies about pressing the send button on twitter.  One of Edwards statements was “…cause here’s the problem when you press it you can’t take it back men it’s out there, and if it’s really good one of those juicy ones guess what da-na-na-da-na-na we got it!”  He is referring to ESPN, who he now works for, and is exclaiming to the players that it’s better to just not press send at all, and that all it is going to do is hurt them because ESPN will broadcast it out to everyone.  My last source (Tweeting, Texting, and Facebook) ties together all of my other sources because it speaks about how drama occurred over a twitter page (Perez, 6).  The twitter page was created to outcast specific girls and used nasty language to downgrade the girls that it targeted.  Of course this then got students talking to one another, mostly through text because it is more private then to speak out loud at school about it, and the issue grew over the Internet and through text.  This last source helps to tie my argument together because it shows how once something is sent or created it cannot be taken back, it is in the open and it can affect many people.   

The stance that I plan to take with this essay is that the privacy of texting and social media can only go so far.  If you send an inappropriate picture of yourself you no longer have access to this picture.  Now it is in the hands of someone else, therefore the idea that you send a picture to someone of yourself because at that moment in time you might want that person to have it and to see it, but in a few days, months, years, that picture may still be there and you of course would not want anyone else to see it because it was only meant for that specific person unless you have sent one out to many other people.  Also the idea that you must read over everything before you press the send button, the idea that once you hit send it isn’t coming back and once again someone has access to your words now and can show other people what you have sent them and said to them.  Once something is sent out through text, twitter, Facebook, any form of social media, it can be duplicated, copied, anything you name it.  It has now become property of anyone that is associated with you, or anyone on the Internet for that matter if it is posted through social media.  In this case there is no way out of what you did there is concrete hardcore proof of what you sent and there is no returning from that situation.  I plan to use specific examples to show where I stand on the topic of the privacy of texting and social media.  By using specific examples like Brett Favre and the Herm Edwards speech, I will be able to prove my point that the privacy of texting and social media is not as private as many people might think it is.

            The source that best helps me prove my stance is the last one that speaks about the young girls who were being directly harassed over twitter.  This source helps to pull all of my other sources together, but also gives my audience something to relate to.  It includes texting, twitter, and Facebook.  Almost every generation uses one of the three with some using two out of three or even all three.  This source proves that whatever is put out on social media is out there for good.  The twitter pages was not popular until the nasty tweets about the girls came out, making

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a lot of people within the school, and even outside of the school follow it because of the drama that came with the tweets.  This idea proves my stance that social media and texting are not as private of a medium that people may think it is.  Don’t press the send button, re-read everything before pressing the send button, if there is slight chance that something will offend someone or hurt someone then don’t press the send button.  The send button is not a button that anyone wants to take lightly because it will come back to haunt you in the end.

                                                                                Works Cited

Samimi, Pouria, and Kevin G. Alderson. "Sexting Among Undergraduate Students." Computers In Human Behavior 31.(2014): 230-241. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

Allen, Kathleen P. "Tweeting, Texting, And Facebook Postings: Stirring The Pot With Social Media To Make Drama - Case Study And Participant Observation." Qualitative Report 19.2 (2014): 1-24. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.

Services, ESPN.com News. "Arian Foster Posts MRI photo." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 01 Sept. 2011. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.

Creed, Ryan. "Jenn Sterger Interview: Brett Favre Scandal Turned Life 'Upside Down'" ABC News. ABC News Network, 10 Apr. 2011. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.

Edwards, Herm. “The Business of Football: Rookie Edition” NFLPA’s Rookie Symposium. 29 June 2011

Lepp, Andrew, Jacob E. Barkley, and Aryn C. Karpinski. "The Relationship Between Cell Phone Use, Academic Performance, Anxiety, And Satisfaction With Life In College Students." Computers In Human Behavior 31.(2014): 343-350. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.

              The first source speaks about how there is a direct negative relationship between cell phone use and academic performance among students.  The idea of being able to multi-task creates a problem for students because phones cause multi-tasking alone, therefore creating a problem when studying or doing schoolwork.  Many students alone check their phones for Facebook and twitter, as well as text messages on the regular while doing work, therefore it creates a span of time where students lose concentration on their work and focus more on their phones.  The constant checking of a phone creates a direct relationship to a lower GPA for most college students. 

            I would be able to use this for my work because my topic is about texting, and how some people spend a lot of time on their phones.  One of the groups that I specifically targeted in my paper was kid’s that are in school who have figured out how to text during class.  Now if texting and checking a cellular device not in class while doing homework results in lower grades, then of course checking your phone inside a classroom while a teacher is teaching will cause lower grades.  This is a perfect fit for my work because it backs up the ideas that I have about texting during class or a meeting can cause problems for people. 

            Sultan, Abdullah J. "Addiction To Mobile Text Messaging Applications Is Nothing To “Lol” About." Social Science Journal 51.1 (2014): 57-69. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.

  My second source is about apps and BBM’s and how they are affecting younger generations, because they have the ability to text from multiple sources such as iPads, or iPods that their parents allow them to use, or that young kids even own.  There is surely an addiction to uses of texting and this article provides the evidence to back it up as there is research from the early 2000’s to now that shows how texting and technology has developed and has become addicting to younger generations.

            This article will help me to back up my work because my work has to do with texting and how it has developed over time.  Also I can talk about how younger kids are getting more involved with texting and how with the increase in technology usage, younger kids get to text at an even younger age.  This allows me to speak about how I wasn’t able to really text until I received my phone, but now kids can text with these new apps that are available.   

      Samimi, Pouria, and Kevin G. Alderson. "Sexting Among Undergraduate Students." Computers In Human Behavior 31.(2014): 230-241. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

              My third source is about how “sexting” has become a popular act for teens and even adults.  The act of sexting continues to increase, and the percentages come from the year 2008, before iPhones and Snapchat.  A recent poll was taken in the year 2012 at Temple and people who partake in “sexting” mostly in a relationship or dating someone.  Sexting does not directly correlate with ages, but it does with relationships, the percentages increase when talking to kids or adults that are in relationships or are dating. 

            This source helps with my work because I speak about how texting is extremely private recently, and many people don’t want other to read their texts or see the pictures that they receive.  This tells the story perfectly because sexting is supposed to be something that others do not see.  It is meant for only one persons eyes according to the article. 

  Wood, Clare, et al. "Grammatical Understanding, Literacy And Text Messaging In School Children And Undergraduate Students: A Concurrent Analysis." Computers & Education 70.(2014): 281-290. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

              My fourth source speaks about how people are concerned about how the shortening of words can cause students to do poorly in class.  It speaks about how older people don’t have a problem because they were not exposed to texting at a young age like my generation.  Since texting is related to fundamental literacy skills it can hurt those who are trying to learn to read and write at a higher level, when studying for the SAT and ACT.

            This helps my work because it shows another side to how texting can affect scores.  How abbreviating words can cause a decline in learning skills.  I speak about this in my work and how the abbreviating of words because abbreviating has been around for quite some time does not change scores.  But it gives another side to my work.

  Perry, Raymond C.W., et al. "Associations Among Text Messaging, Academic Performance, And Sexual Behaviors Of Adolescents." Journal Of School Health 84.1 (2014): 33-39. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

Nick Vallo                                                                                                       Vallo Page 1 

Dylan Winchock

Academic Writing

February 20, 2014

  The Joy of Texting

Summary

In the article The Joy of Texting by Lynne Truss, she depicts many ideas of how to communicate with others through texting.  Truss shows us that there are many different ways to text (Truss 939.) You have the ability to use slang, or text properly and write in complete sentence form (Truss 940.)  But whichever way you choose to text you must make sure that your recipient can understand what you have sent to them.  The fast form of communication is taking over as the newest form of communicating with one another.  You have the ability to read a text and not respond, or you can respond right away, regardless of what you do, it’s changing the way we communicate with people, and is becoming a large and main form of communication that can be just as unreliable as reliable.  All in all texting is changing communication, some would say for the better others would say for the worse.  Truss depicts the aspects of texting fast and or slow depending on who it is that is texting (Truss 940.)  Here she speaks about how she enjoys texting fast and others enjoy waiting for some length of period before returning the text (Truss 940.)  Also Truss speaks about using acronyms, or slang to shorten text, but some people might not be able to understand what you are saying since there are so many different ways to use abbreviations and different dialect.

Context

Texting has developed into a way to communicate with others at a high-speed rate.  It is extremely easy to pick up on as well, once you start you really cannot stop.  Now you can be like Truss and send long elaborate texts back right away without hesitation or you can be like her friends who wait a couple days before they respond (Truss 940.)  Whichever way you choose to text, you are still becoming a part of the newest and fastest way to communicate amongst one another.  Texting is now being used by just about everyone, from young elementary school students to grandparents, and everyone in between.  In fact my girlfriends’ nine-year-old cousin has figured out a way to text off of her mother’s iPad.  Texting has allowed multiple ways to communicate with those of all ages.  Texting has started to engulf some people’s lives as well.  Many times there will be kids and even adults walking down the street looking down at their phones not paying attention to their surroundings.  The many problems that come with walking with your head down in a city area at least are, you leave yourself susceptible to being hit by a car, as well as being robbed by someone.  Being that I am from the New York retro area, I live close to New York City, and that is all you see now, people walking while talking on their cell phones or looking down texting.  There are so many cars going through the streets in New York City that I would say that many accidents probably occur

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due to people not paying attention to where they are going when they’re walking.  In terms of robberies it is pretty easy to snatch a phone from someone’s hand and just keep running full speed ahead through large crowds.  Of course there are just the accidents that happen while people are walking, I know I have seen and experienced it directly, walking into someone or something while looking down at your phone, it is an experience that is never fun.  Texting is becoming the newest and most popular way to communicate, and is spreading fast.  Even in other countries, an article written by Sherna Noah and published online, “Texting Overtakes Talking as Most Popular Form of Communication in UK” on the Indepent.UK, texting has developed into the most common form of communication in England. In the article it stated that “…text messaging used by 90% of 16 to 24-year-olds to communicate at least once a day with friends and family, followed by social networking (74%), mobile phone calls (67%) and face-to-face contact (63%)” (Texting Overtakes.) This fact proves that texting is growing tremendously amongst every country.

            Texting has now become, in a sense, the secret way to communicate with others.  You have the ability to text anyone at any moment in time, and can have a full on conversation sometimes without having anyone notice at all.  Now if you are in a meeting and your head is down the entire time it may be obvious to what you are doing.  But if you are like Truss and excuse yourself to send a text, you may find yourself in the bathroom for up to 30 minutes just sending texts back and forth with friends and relatives (Truss 940.)  It can be tough to concentrate with your phone buzzing in your pocket.  As a student sometimes when you are bored in class you feel the need to send that text out to someone just to get your mind away from class.  I know that I have been texting in class since I was in seventh grade.  It is so easy to just reach into your pocket, pull out your phone and start up a conversation with someone.  It requires no noise and not much effort at all.  Texting really has evolved into a secret way to communicate.  It truly is a tremendous medium, a form of communication right in front of someone and they might not even notice it.  However there are two sides to this.  Our generation may not see it as being disrespectful to text while you’re speaking to someone but the older generation does in fact see it as a sincere form of disrespect.  I view it as a form of disrespect but I’ve learned to deal with it because no matter what you are going to have someone who enjoys to multi-task and text while they talk at the same time.  According to an article written by Scott Jaschik, titled “Texting in Class” “A new study has found that more than 90 percent of students admit to using their devices for non-class activities during class times” (Texting in Class.)  This does not surprise me at all because I have seen several people and have been one of them to go on a social media network, or just go on the Internet during a class.  Texting can also be used to keep things quiet, for example Truss discusses how a friend used text to keep a tragic suicide quiet (Truss 940), and this use of texting can work to your advantage or disadvantage depending on if you send it to the right person.  This is something else I am sure all of us have seen go wrong, where a friend tells another friend to read a text out loud and it turns out to be something a lot more personal than anyone is supposed to hear.  These situations are tough calls, but if you allow someone to read your text messages your business then becomes theirs.  Sending

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important texts or trustworthy text messages can take a turn for the worse.  Reason being that you do not know who has access to that person’s phone, and you do not know whom that person might show your message to.

 Next there is the language that is behind texting.  Many people choose to use slang and shorten their words when they are texting.  Forms of slang differ depending on who you are texting.  The younger generation has a lot of slang, uses acronyms to make their texts shorter.  In some cases this is so that if someone does get a hold of their phone, their parents, then they will not be able to understand what has been said in the text.  However the forms of slang can confuse the reader, and will force people texting to send extra messages, or may possibly confuse readers into thinking something else was said.  Slang can change the course of a conversation depending on the person sending a text, the person reading the text, and the context as well as the text.  Being that there are so many different forms of texting, as well as slangs that come with the areas that we live in as well, so it is not just limited to how we speak over texting.  However slang and the usage of short dialogue can reduce the amount of texts that are received by someone.  When you are sending a text as well as receiving one you usually do not want to type out five text messages, and to receive and read five texts is something that you would not like to do as well.  Using concise language can cut down the amount of texts and words that you have to both type and read.  Also depending on the person who is sending the text to you can change your mind on whether you would like to read the entire text that has been sent.  When the text is meaningful and thought out it makes it easier to read and get through the longer texts.  The forms of acronyms can also cause a bit of trouble in texting.  In fact Truss discusses how she uses LOL wrong all the time by uses the acronym to mean something different than what is usually used; “…and employ no handy abbreviations except for ‘LOL’- which I always use, willfully incorrectly, to signify ‘lots of love’”(Truss 939.)  Acronyms can be a bit confusing when you are texting.  There can be so many different versions of acronyms, one simple example is LOL, which can mean both laugh out loud and lots of love.  One of my teachers in high school once explained to us that there was a time when one of his friends loved ones had passed away, so he sent a heartfelt text message, because he was in school, and at the end put LOL for lots of love.  Now of course this was just a misunderstanding but it is a clear example of how something as small as LOL can change the entire context of a conversation.

  Audience

Truss does not have a specific audience that she is trying to address for this piece.  Her idea in this is that it can be relatable to all audiences from older generations to younger ones.  With texting becoming such a large part of communication now everyone is learning how to text, or has the ability to learn how to text.  There is however the fact that if someone does not know what texting is that they will not be able to understand this piece of literature.  Then of course if that becomes the case, there is a specific audience that would not understand what she is speaking about.  For example people who are Amish if they ever were to read this book they would not understand the ideas and purpose that Truss lays out because

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they do not have any experience using electronic devices.  She of course does not say this in her work, but it is assumed that if only people who do not have cell phones would not be able to understand where she is going with her work.

Purpose

Lynn Truss’ decision to write this article has to do with showing everyone how the medium of texting works.  With it becoming such a common use of communication it is extremely informative to certain people who do not realize how much texting does in fact effect how we communicate.  Truss does an excellent job of informing us of many little parts to texting that we might not notice.  For example, she does a great job of harping on how we all love the idea that we can send a message from our own phone to someone else’s with the push of a button (Truss 939.)  Truss enjoys her texting, especially her long elaborate texts that she sends to her friends, even though they might not appreciate them.  In my opinion she reached her goal in this piece, which was to inform the readers that texting has become the newest and most convenient way to communicate whether you are young, old, or middle aged.  Truss uses some personal anecdote as well as comedy to keep the reader on their toes, by using her own experiences she allows the reader to put themselves in her shoes, and since it is texting I would say a majority of the readers have firsthand experiences just like Truss.  Truss’ laid back form of writing does in fact help her a lot because she does not force a specific tone upon her audience.  She produces a relaxed tone, so that she has the ability to diverge into another topic about texting when needed.  This form of writing allows her to do so because she does not tie herself down by using a strict format, or tone that forced her to not use personal anecdote or some humor.  Truss shows us as readers that texting can be specific in a personal way as well; meaning that you would be able to tell who someone is just by reading a text without a name on it.  Truss enjoys sending long and thorough texts at a quick pace, as soon as she receives a text she sends one right back out.  Whereas her friends enjoy making her wait a couple hours, sometimes-even days before they choose to respond back to her (Truss 939.)  This helps her cause by showing us her experiences, in hopes that the reader will understand and relate to them and I surely did. 

            Stance

From a readers standpoint you can tell that Truss wrote this piece with a lot of desire.  She is very passionate about how she likes to text, and correcting others who decide to use slang and acronyms when they are texting her (Truss Page 939.)  Another way that Truss comes across as enjoying writing this pieces is that she includes plenty of personal anecdote in her piece.  If someone is not interested in what they are writing they tend to spit out facts, and only facts.  This forces the audience to read the article in a monotone voice in their head, and does not interest the reader.  Truss’ position makes it personal because of how many personal experiences she includes in her article.  She speaks about how her and her friends text one another (Truss 939) and about how she changes the way she uses the word “LOL” for example (Truss 939.)  This allows the readers to feel at ease when reading

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it because she comes across on an intimate level with the reader.  The major claims that Truss makes in her article are very well supported with personal anecdote but also with relatable theories, one example being the going to the bathroom and sending out text messages (Truss 941.)  This topic of how secretive texting can be illustrates truly how secret texting can be.  Sneaking off in a meeting or from class to speak to someone through text can have you sitting in the bathroom and lose track of time.  Which has happened to many of us on numerous occasions.  Truss really does not use many facts, as this article is more of a personal based one instead of fact based.  It is chock-full-of relatable stories and ideas that allow the reader to thing to oneself if it has happened to them or not.       

  Genre Awareness

The genre of the article is stated below the context on page 938, where it explains that, “This piece was originally published in 2008 in the British news-paper the Guardian…” (Truss 939.)  It is written much like a newspaper article so an audience would be in fact have that feel that they were reading an article in the paper.  The context is not explained directly by Truss because it was first published in a newspaper, but then again it is clearly stated on page 939 that it was originally published in a specific paper.  Truss does a great job of making the assumption of an audience she would get reading this piece.  She does a great job of explaining what she has developed by using her firsthand experiences to deliver the messages to us through her piece.  Truss goes through this process indirectly, because she does not have a strict informative tone with this piece.  In order for Truss to inform her readers and explain the expectations that the audience has for her piece she must choose to write her piece in a way so that the audience can understand where she is coming from.  By using facts as well as her own language and her own personal experiences she completes this task of predicting her audience perfectly.  However it does help her cause that there is not a direct audience being targeted here since almost everyone texts, or has the ability to text in this time period.  A perfect example of this is her idea about how someone can excuse themselves and go to the bathroom to send out a text message (Truss 940-941.)  This applies to many people for example a student can go to the bathroom and make a phone call or send a text, but so can a business man or woman who is in a meeting, they can just as easily excuse themselves.  Using this specific example shows that Truss did a great job in predicting the audience because this specific scenario relates to a wide variety of people.

  Medium and Design

            The process that I took to build this article was by reading and breaking down the article into the specific categories that we had to follow.  With that being said, some of the challenges that I faced were the article that I chose to write about was one of the shorter ones so it had less information in it, and was not a fact based article as well.  Another challenge that left me somewhat at a standstill for a little was the fact that this is a blog post and not a traditional essay.  With that being said many of y classmates as well as Professor Winchock left me comments discussing

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how I should change the movement of my work so that it was divided into sections and have less of a structured form.  What I learned about creating a blog is that it is similar but also different from other forms of social media.  For example on Facebook and Tumblr there is not limit to the amount of characters you can use, but on twitter you are restricted to a specific amount of characters that you can use per tweet.  This is where the idea of how this specific project would have been different if the class had used say Facebook or Twitter.  Twitter would not have fit this idea because of the restriction that it holds to text, however it may have been better for pictures that we used earlier in the semester.  Facebook is very similar to Tumblr so that platform of blogging would have worked out well for this type of project.  It was easier to use the book as well as hyperlinks to help depict Truss’ article because since it was not fact based I found it easier to find articles that related to her work, but that also had the facts to back up her statements as well as my own. 

Works Cited

Jaschik, Scott. "Texting In Class." Study Documents How Much Students Text during Class | Inside Higher Ed. N.p., 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

Lunsford, Andrea A. "The Joy of Texting by Lynn Truss." 2008. Everyone's an Author:. New York: W.W. Norton and, 2013. 939-41. Print.

1. In order to get the attention of a crowd at a football game I would have to have an extremely strong introduction. The reason behind this is because football fans get dialed in extremely fast. This is the reason for a great introduction so that I will be able to grab their attention right away. But all of my points would have to be strong because football fans can get bored very quickly. My paper would have to be full of pathos, as well as ethos, so that it is emotional and allows them to relate to what I am talking about. 

2. To grab the attention of visitors at an art museum this would take a ton of credibility. Therefore everything that I spoke about I would have to back up with a statement that backs up my point. Also people that admire art are very creative, so my paper would have to be creative and allow for some critical thinking. Many people who enjoy going to art museums like to break down what they are looking at, so I would have to be clever and strategic with what they are reading. 

3. In order to grasp the attention of people who are attending a movie, I would have to have an appealing introduction that would get their attention immediately. People who attend movies go because of the preview or go because what they have heard word of mouth. So I would also need to intrigue others that would pass the word along allowing me to become a popular name. 

4. For Facebook and Social Media users I would most likely just post status' and short and sweet, straight to the point sentences. This would allow my readers to see that I am getting right to the point, and they would take the time to read my work. Another strategy that I would use is posting videos, pictures, and other forms of media so that my viewers would have something else to look at instead of just reading posts. 

First Draft

  Can text no matter where you are.

LOL “lots of love” showing the shortening of texts.

Communication that’s effective, extremely quick and easy to send.

Sending long texts is against the “texting rules.”

Using proper grammar.

    Eager to text is seen as being “uncool.”

Responding to questions, something we do all the time.

Suicide, secretive medium used to keep things quiet.

Improved or destroyed by texting (stories and plots.)

Reading texts out loud is also tricky because you don’t know.

Having someone read you a text is the same.

Going to another place to text (done in school.)

  Sneaky way of communication.

All sneaky because of texting, have the ability to speak to anyone at anytime.

  Personal anecdote.

Most people are texting now; and we all have our certain ways to text, it makes life easier.

Text during class, meetings, speeches, events, everything.

Has developed into the main way to communicate with one another. 

  Summary

        In “The Joy of Texting” by Lynne Truss, we are given many ways to text, and not to text. There are ways to shorten sayings, like “LOL” which can be used for “lots of love” or the common use “laughing out loud.” Whichever way you choice to use texting, make sure the recipient understands it so that they can respond to you without wasting a silly text.

      Texting has developed into a way to communicate extremely fast, and it is very simple once you get the hang of it. Now you can be like Truss and send long elaborate texts that people might not want to read, or you can be like her friends sending short texts every once in a blue moon, or whenever they feel like it. Either way texting has become an easy way to communicate with one another, and in my eyes has become the main way to communicate among the younger generation. You often see kids walking looked down at their phones, not paying attention to their surroundings. This can be taken as a bad thing, kids are non-social, but it also means they are extremely social, just depends on who is viewing the situation.

      Texting has now become, in a sense, the secret way to communicate with others as well. You have the ability to text anyone at any moment in time, and can have a full on conversation sometimes without having anyone notice at all. Now if you are in a meeting and your head is down the entire time it may be obvious to what you are doing. But if you are like Truss and excuse yourself to send a text, you may find yourself in the bathroom for up to 30 minutes just sending texts back and forth with friends and relatives. It can be tough to concentrate with your phone buzzing in your pocket. As a student sometimes when you are bored in class you feel the need to send that text out to someone just to get your mind away from class. It truly is a tremendous medium, a form of communication right in front of someone and they might not even notice it. Texting can also be used to keep things quiet, for example Truss discusses how a friend used text to keep a tragic suicide quiet, and this use of texting can work to your advantage or disadvantage depending on if you send it to the right person.

      Reading texts is another touchy subject. For example reading a text out loud or having another person read your text to you could also backfire immediately. I have seen it happen before and it is not pretty. Private information now becomes everyone’s business when a text is read aloud especially if it is something people were not supposed to hear.

Ethos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P69RNSA4rYY This first clip is Ethos, the advertisement for Powerade using LeBron James. This ad uses a star basketball player shooting full court shots, and making them, to market the drink Powerade. Concluding if you drink Powerade before you play basketball you might be able to shoot full court shots like LeBron does in the ad. 

Logos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXeDUFTaU1Y This clip shows that division one athletes go pro in something other than the sport that they play. It gives numbers such as, African American males who participate in sports are 10% more likely to graduate. There are over 400,00 NCAA athletes and a majority of us will be going pro in something else. 

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