Text Can Take Many Unexpected Forms Other Than Writing
Text can be more than written word, it can be any type of expression including; movies, memes, social media, post, essays, websites, podcasts and many more. This idea was first presented to me by Melanie Gagich’s "An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing." Gagich took everything I thought I knew about text and showed me an entirely new perspective. “When we use the term “text” in composition courses, we often mean it is a piece of communication that can take many forms.” Gagich says this almost as though it’s common knowledge but it was totally new and mind-altering for me.
In “*Insert Caption That Will Make all Your Followers Like Your Picture Here*,” Jessi Batterman talks about captions on social media and how they are much more thought out than most people think. This is one mode of composition that Gagich also talks about in her journal entry. An example of this that recently presented itself to me was an analysis of a movie for my Literature class. We analyzed it as though it was a book or a short story and this really ties into the idea that all forms of expression can be seen as text. This is meaningful to me because it opens up several new opportunities for me to write in a different way or compose text in new modes of communication. It’s also helpful to me as a student in general. For example, being able to view a movie as a piece of literature was significantly easier because of the new perspective that my sources gave me.
First Drafts Don't Need to Be Good to Be Useful
First drafts are hard to write for everyone, no matter how much experience you have. Your first draft doesn’t need to be good and it most likely won’t be if you are using the writing process correctly. Anne Lamott’s explanation of her writing process is a good example of how a bad first draft can be used to create a high-quality final product. In her passage “Shitty First Drafts,” Lamott says “So I'd start writing without reigning myself in. It was almost just typing, just making my fingers move. And the writing would be terrible.” That’s how she would write her first drafts of food reviews for a high-profile magazine. The draft produced with this method is more valuable than the one that took hours of writing, erasing, and rewriting.
I’m not saying that the more traditional method of planning or outlining a draft is bad. Lamott isn’t saying that either, before she decides to “start writing without reigning myself in,” she makes detailed notes about her research and has a general understanding of all her source information. Where you can run into trouble is when you try to get every little idea laid out nice and neat in an outline. Like Richard Marius explains in “Writing Drafts,” it’s not necessary to go into minute detail when you are just trying to create a reference of your own ideas. Marius also agrees with Lamott that once you get to writing your draft you shouldn’t stop to think about what the best thing to say is. He advocates for maintaining a quick flow of ideas and allowing for whatever pops into your mind to make it into the draft. I would often spend a long time writing my first drafts because I wanted them to be as perfect as possible. That would often result in a final product that wasn’t bad but was lacking in substance. Using the new method that I described I’ll be able to more effectively express my ideas.
Works Cited
The Internet Is Making Young People Better at Writing
Works Cited
Interview with Andrea Lunsford
By Katie Bolger
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Tech and My Reading and Writing Literacies
By Jasmine Thomas
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There are plenty of people that think the internet is a negative thing for the development of young people. The common claim is that internet services make reading and writing too easy for students nowadays. It is so easy to see when you are one of the young people who is supposedly being hindered by the internet, how it in fact is making me better at reading and writing. The internet is making reading and writing education more effective than ever.
In her response to the claim that google is making us stupid, Andrea Lunsford explains, “... we are in the midst of a literacy revolution bigger than I believe anyone has ever seen, but I do not believe that these changes are doing anything to damage our ability to think or communicate.” We are learning in a new way that allows us to learn from wherever we are and at any time. I see no reason why there should be any resistance to online learning. What Lunsford said in her response really resonated with me because I’ve seen the evolution of technology throughout my life.
Another person who has seen technology evolve and grow with them their whole life is Jasmine Thomas. In her video she talks about how the evolution from reading to e-reading has affected her parents’ view of the activity. She says, “... the same activity that my parents praised me for, started to make them skeptical.” This is the sort of skepticism that leads to disagreement with my claim. I think that most of the time that someone believes that the internet isn’t helping students be better learners, it’s because they’ve never used technology to help themselves be better learners.
Writing for Political Science Is Much More Scientific than I Previously Believed
Writing for political science uses the scientific method much more than most people realize. Political scientists use the scientific method to develop hypotheses and theories about why certain aspects of politics work the way they do. The University of Washington’s Political Science Department has an interesting homepage in which they explain what political science really is. “Political science focuses on the theory and practice of government and politics at the local, state, national, and international levels.” The use of the word “theory” in that description is really what I want to highlight in this claim. Political science is mostly theoretical like many other sciences, there are rarely proven facts in the field, just well demonstrated theories.
There are a few fields within political science but they all have one thing in common. No matter what field, political scientists must always write with special attention to their audience. The way that a writer chooses to present their theory can vary greatly based on who they intend for it to reach. In their handout about writing about political science, the Appalachian State University describes the various audiences a political scientist may want to reach. “Audiences vary in political science from the general public, educators, and peers, to administrators, politicians, and lawmakers, plus those involved in political action or those who are merely interested in politics.”
Whenever I think of political science, I always see it as more adjacent to law and history as a subject to major in than a science. I actually chose to major in political science because I liked history and civics class in high school. My decision worked out for me because political science doesn’t require too much creative writing which has always been my weakest point. Being able to write effectively and for a specific audience is an important skill for political scientists. Political science uses the scientific method to craft theories and assertions to reach a target audience.
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