In-class free write

1. what kind of argument are you trying to make in your essay? I was agreeing with the article that Sommers wrote regarding student writers and how they view revision vs. experienced writers. If i was part of that study I would have commented pretty much the same as the student writers.

2. How are you using the text in your draft? not sure

3. how have you organized your draft so far? Just started writing even though I am sure it does not flow at this time. My intro / opening statement I think is pretty good... I need to look at it again tomorrow and the next day to build it up. need to include more quotes

4. what do you like about your draft so far? introduction

IF you had to identify one sentence or passage that seems to to the heart of what you are trying to say, what would it be? what i view as redoing

5. What are you struggling with in your draft? More to write about-writers block... I did option one

what questions do you have? what else to include

what kinds of feed back would you like? suggestions of what i could elaborate on

assignment 1 - Draft #2

Assignment #1- Draft of option #1.

In Nancy Sommers article it seems that there is a significant difference on how student writers and experienced writers view revision. I was taught to revise and write in school from my English classes. My teachers always focused on grammar, punctuation, lexical repetition and structural errors rather than what I had to say in my paper. I was either told or it was written in red ink on my paper to “fix”, “change” or “re-do” my paper. This teaching has caused me to focus with more micro issues like the student writers in Sommers article rather than my ideas, points or arguments like the experienced writer. Reading this article was an eye opener for me to reflect on myself to see how and why I write the way that I do when dealing with the concept of revision and writing papers.

Therefore, English courses caused me to focus more on lexical repetition as opposed to conceptual repetition as Sommers wrote in article. “The students place a symbolic importance on their selection and rejection of words as the determiners of success or failure for their compositions….” From my past experience I would agree to the above quote. I would write for the assignment and conform to what I thought the English teacher wanted rather than validating my creative beliefs and my ideas. I feel conceptual revisions are lost in the process of writing because as a student writer you are more focused on word choice, sentence run-ons and fragment sentences etc. For me, this experience has caused a stigma when I have to write an English paper. I personally become stressed out, have the thought of “what’s the point, I will get a “C” anyways and lose all interest in writing.

As a student writer English writing does not seem creative and it goes with the experience that I have had in the past with English teachers. My past English teachers would always make comments on my papers “ too many passive words” or cross out words or circle misspelled words in red or black ink. The English teachers that I have experienced never included positive feedback causing me not to try my best and maintain a “C” average. Per Sommers article the experience writer states "My first drafts is usually very scattered. In rewriting, I find the line of argument. After the argument is resolved, I am much more interested in word choice and phrasing.” I really liked this line because I never really actually got to put any thought really into any of my past English classes and what revision really means. This loss of self ends up as writers block

Historically English students are taught structurally and my perspective is very similar to other student writes as described by Sommers, for example "re-doing means cleaning up the paper and crossing out" and another example described by Sommers "reviewing means just using better words and eliminating words that are not needed." The English stigma that creates lack of creativity or passion to write contributes to a student writer to become fearful of writing due to no positive reinforcements of conceptual writing

English Stigmatism that I have experienced has created has created a lack of passion or desire to write.

Assignment #1- draft option 1

Assignment #1- Draft of option #1.

Student writers are more focused on lexical repetition rather than conceptual repetition because they are writing for the assignment as opposed for themselves and their ideas. Therefore conceptual revisions are lost in the process of writing because as a student writer you are more focused word choice, sentence run-ons and fragment sentences. Student writers are more focused on structure of assignment rather the purpose of the paper. creativity is lost in translation of the the assignment.

Historically english students are taught structually and my perspective is very similar to other student writes as described by Sommers, for example "re-doing means cleaning up the paper and crossing out" and another example described by Sommers "reviewing means just using better words and eliminating words that are not needed."

English Stigmatism that i have experienced has created has created a lack of passion or desire to write

Difficulty paper- assignment 1

In Clive Thompson’s article, he says that electronic writing, like text messaging and emailing, has increased the quality and quantity of writing among young people. His opinion is based off of research done by Andrea Lunsford. Her study was done “from 2001 to 2006, [in which] she collected 14,672 student writing samples.” She found that young people were writing more and they were better attuned at getting their point across. This article is in favor of text messaging and technological writings as it is bettering students’ writing as opposed to destroying it with poor grammar and informal language. However, in my opinion the study that was conducted was too narrow to be conclusive as it focused only on first-year Stanford students and it doesn’t take into consideration general emails that are sent on a daily basis that do not convey proper tone or a clear message.

Lunsford’s opinions are based off data gathered from students at Stanford, an Ivy League school whose first-year students are already prepared for academic writing. Therefore comparing that group of individuals to the young population in general is too big of a leap to make such a conclusion. At one point she says, “The first thing she found is that young people today write far more than any generation before them.” Who does she mean by young people? Are they 17? Or are they 40 and happen to be in their first-year at Stanford? What are the other demographics of the students in this case study? The age and demographics of the sample group is vague. How can one make a comparison off a single study group, especially coming from an Ivy League school? What about other first-year students from a community college? How would that affect the study? “When Lunsford examined the work of first-year students, she didn’t find a single example of texting speak in an academic paper.” Potentially, this is because she was working with an academically knowledgeable group of Ivy League students. There are a variety of young people coming from different environments who might not be as successful in academic writing. Their use of text writing could potentially lower their ability to assess their audience or get their point across. However, we can’t tell due to Lunsford’s narrow study.
At another point in this article the author introduces the idea of kairos-“assessing their audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get their point across,” insinuating that young people can better convey themselves to others; however, this is not commonly true with emails seen in the corporate world. A Director at my work place sent out a general email regarding current layoffs, which carried a tone that was misread as insensitive. Everyone has a common story in which they have received or sent out an email or text message that was interpreted incorrectly. Whether you are talking about professionals in the workplace or young people, the fact still remains emails nor text messaging has increased the idea of kairos in writing. Lunsford once again is over generalizing making a conclusion that people are writing better because people are writing more. Every generation is writing more due to accessibility, but that does not make an individuals writing clear or concise.

In conclusion, based on the sample group that Lunsford based her study and the fact that kairos continues to elude most writers of emails or text messages, I have great difficulty accepting Clive Thompson’s article. In order for people to accept studies more data and a wider perspective is needed. As for me, I am going to continue to refine my formal writing because I don’t believe that text messaging my friends is going to help me gain the writing skills that I need to be successful in life.